Patent ID: 7867714

Claim:
A method for identifying the presence or absence of a target nucleic acid in a sample, which comprises: (a) contacting a sample with a target detection reagent that forms a reagent:target complex when target is present in the sample, wherein: (i) the target detection reagent comprises a transcription unit comprising a promoter region operatively linked to a coding sequence; (ii) the coding sequence encodes a RNA transcription product; (b) transcribing a RNA transcription product from the coding sequence in a complex present after (a), wherein the RNA transcription product comprises a compomer consisting of one, two or three nucleotide types, and a terminal nucleotide sequence consisting of one or more nucleotide types not included in the compomer; (c) cleaving the RNA transcription product thereby generating a cleavage product, wherein the 3′ terminus of the compomer is at the 3′ terminus of the cleavage product; and (d) detecting the presence or absence of the cleavage product that includes the compomer, whereby the presence or absence of the target nucleic acid is identified based on the presence or absence of the cleavage product.