Patent ID: 7960116

Claim:
A method of sequencing at least a portion of a template nucleic acid, the method comprising: (a) providing a sequencing reaction mixture comprising: (i) the template nucleic acid; (ii) a complementary nucleic acid that is at least partially complementary to the template nucleic acid, wherein the complementary nucleic acid is hybridized to the template nucleic acid; (iii) an exonuclease that comprises template dependent nucleobase binding activity; and, (iv) at least one labeled nucleobase; (b) permitting the sequencing reaction mixture to react, such that the exonuclease transiently binds the labeled nucleobase in a template dependent manner, wherein the exonuclease moves along the template as it digests the complementary nucleic acid, wherein said nucleobase is not incorporated by said exonuclease; (c) detecting transient binding of the labeled nucleobase by the exonuclease; and, (d) determining a sequence of the template, or a portion thereof, based upon said detecting.