Patent ID: 6872523

Claim:
A method of determing whether one or more fungal Asperillus species is present in a sample of fungi, said method comprising the follong steps: a) extracting nucleic acid matcrial from fungi contained in a patient sample from a patient suspected of having an Aspergillus infection; b) adding two oligonucleotide primers, one of said primers consisting of SEQ ID: NO:1. and the other primer consisting of SEQ ID NO:2. said primers bracketing a hypervariable region on the rRNA present in the fungal species of said group, and said primers being capable of amplifying Aspergillus Ustus (SEQ ID NO: 3) Aspergillus terreus (SEO ID NO: 4), Aspergillus niger (SEQ ID No: 5), Aspergillus nigulans (SEQ ID No: 6), Aspergillus fumigatus (SEQ ID NO: 7), and Aspergillus flavus (SEQ ID NO: 8); c) amplifying the sequence between said primers; and d) using one or more detectably labeled probes directed to a portion of the hypervariable region braketed by sad primers, said probes beg selected from the group consisting of at least 15-25 contiguous nucleotides ot SEQ ID NO: 3, SEQ ID NO: 4, SEQ ID NO: 5, SEQ ID NO: 6, SEQ ID NO: 7 and SEQ ID NO: 8 which distinguish said species, each said labeled probe being specific for one of asid fungal species from said group, to determine whsether said fungal species identified by each said labeled probe is present in said sample.