Patent ID: 6537755
Filing Date: 2003-03-25
Classification: C12Q

Abstract:
A method of detecting a sequence of a target nucleic acid, comprising:(a) contacting a target nucleic acid with one or more mixtures of a plurality of oligonucleotide probe molecules of predetermined length and predetermined sequence, wherein each probe molecule comprises an information region and at least two probe molecules have different information regions, under conditions which produce, on average, more probe:target hybridization with probe molecules which are perfectly complementary to the target nucleic acid in the information region of the probe molecules than with probe molecules which are mismatched in the information region, wherein the target nucleic acid is not attached to a support, and wherein the probe molecules are not attached to a support; (b) detecting probe molecules that hybridize with the target nucleic acid, using a reader capable of detecting a single probe molecule that hybridizes to target nucleic acid; and (c) detecting a sequence of the target nucleic acid by overlapping sequences of the information regions of at least two of the probe molecules contacted with the target in step (a).