Patent ID: 7172863

Claim:
A probe comprising an oligonucleotide 10 to 100 bases in length which is able to hybridize to a Neisseria gonorrhoeae nucleic acid target region to form a detectable target:probe duplex under high stringency hybridization assay conditions, said target region corresponding to, or fully complementary to and of the same length as a nucleic acid corresponding to, bases 455â€“485 of E. coli 16S rRNA, wherein said oligonucleotide comprises a segment of 10 contiguous bases which is at least 75% complementary to a nucleotide base sequence of 10 contiguous bases present in said target region, and wherein said probe does not hybridze to nucleic acid from Neisseria meningitidis to form a detectable non-target:probe duplex under said hybridization conditions.