Patent ID: 6656689
Filing Date: 2003-12-02
Classification: C12Q

Abstract:
A method for in vitro detection of a microorganism contained in a biological sample comprising the steps of:(a) contacting said biological sample with a nucleic acid probe, the contacting being at a sufficient temperature and hybridization solution concentration to form a hybrid with the nucleic acid probe, the nucleic acid probe consisting of: a sequence from a transcribed spacer region between the 16S and 23S rRNA genes of a prokaryotic microorganism and comprising about 15 to about 100 contiguous nucleotides from a transcribed spacer region between 165 and 235 rRNA genes of a prokaryotic microorganism, or a variant of the nucleic acid comprising up to 3 mismatches in a 15 residue nucleic acid and up to 7 mismatches in a 100 or more residue nucleic acid, wherein the probe specifically detects species of the prokaryotic microorganism and wherein said probe does not include sequences of a tRNA gene: and (b) detecting the formation of the hybrid, with the presence of the hybrid indicating the presence of the microorganism.