Patent ID: 8652812

Claim:
A method for detecting the presence or absence of a target nucleic acid in a biological sample, said method comprising: (a) contacting said biological sample with a set of oligonucleotides to produce a fluorescently labeled amplicon if said target nucleic acid is present in said sample, said set of oligonucleotides under reaction conditions comprising: i) a first oligonucleotide comprising a 5′ and 3′ nucleotide sequence, wherein said 5′ nucleotide sequence is 5-23 nucleotides in length beginning at the 5′ end of said first oligonucleotide, wherein said 3′ sequence is complementary to a first portion of said target nucleic acid, and wherein a fluorescent moiety is attached in the 5′ nucleotide sequence of said first oligonucleotide; and ii) a second oligonucleotide comprising a 5′ and 3′ nucleotide sequence, wherein said 5′ nucleotide sequence is 5-23 nucleotides in length beginning at the 5′ end of said second oligonucleotide, wherein said 3′ nucleotide sequence is complementary to a second portion of said target nucleic acid, and wherein an acceptor moiety is attached in the 5′ nucleotide sequence of said second oligonucleotide; wherein said 5′ nucleotide sequence of said first oligonucleotide is at least 80% identical to the complement of said 5′ nucleotide sequence of said second oligonucleotide, and wherein the 3′ nucleotide sequence of each of said oligonucleotide is not labeled with a fluorescent moiety or an acceptor moiety that is compatible with said fluorescent moiety attached to said first oligonucleotide or said acceptor moiety attached to said second oligonucleotide; and (b) detecting fluorescence of said amplicon.