Patent ID: 6844157

Claim:
A method of detecting microorganisms in a sample a) fixing the microorganisms contained in the sample; b) incubating the fixed microorganisms with detectable nucleic acid probe molecules which are capable of hybridizing to a target nucleic acid of the microorganism to be detected so as to form a complex between the detectable nucleic acid probe molecules and the target nucleic acid; c) removing nonhybridized nucleic acid probe molecules from the fixed microorganisms; d) incubating the fixed microorganisms with a separation solution at a temperature at or above 80° C. and up to 100° C. which denatures the detectable nucleic acid probe molecules from the target nucleic acid, yielding separated nucleic acid probe molecules wherein the separation solution is selected from the group consisting of water, DMSO, 1×SSC and 0.001-0.01 M Tris/HCl, pH 9.0+/−2.0; and e) detecting the separated nucleic acid probe molecules, wherein the presence of the separated nucleic acid probe molecules correlates with the presence of the microorganism in the sample, and wherein the detection signal associated with the separated nucleic acid probe molecules is greater than that with separated nucleic acid probe molecules obtained by incubation in a formamide separation solution.