Patent ID: 7691571

Claim:
A method for detecting the presence or absence of Bordetella pertussis in a biological sample from an individual, said method comprising: performing at least one cycling step, wherein a cycling step comprises an amplifying step and a hybridizing step, wherein said amplifying step comprises contacting said sample with a pair of IS481 primers to produce an IS481 amplification product if a B. pertussis IS481 nucleic acid molecule is present in said sample, wherein said pair of IS481 primers comprises a first IS481 primer and a second IS481 primer, wherein said first IS481 primer consists of the sequence 5′-CCA GTT CCT CAA GGA CGC-3′ (SEQ ID NO:1) and said second IS481 primer consists of the sequence 5′-GAG TTC TGG TAG GTG TGA GCG TA-3′ (SEQ ID NO:2), wherein said hybridizing step comprises contacting said sample with a pair of IS481 probes, wherein said pair of IS481 probes comprises a first IS481 probe and a second IS481 probe, wherein said first IS481 probe consists of the sequence 5′-CAC CGC TTT ACC CGA CCT TAC CGC CCA C-3′ (SEQ ID NO:3) and said second IS481 probe consists of the sequence 5′-GAC CAA TGG CAA GGC TCG AAC GCT TCA TC-3′ (SEQ ID NO:11), wherein the members of said pair of IS481 probes hybridize within no more than five nucleotides of each other, wherein a first IS481 probe of said pair of IS481 probes is labeled with a donor fluorescent moiety and a second IS481 probe of said pair of IS481 probes is labeled with a corresponding acceptor fluorescent moiety; and detecting the presence or absence of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between said donor fluorescent moiety of said first IS481 probe and said corresponding acceptor fluorescent moiety of said second IS481 probe, wherein the presence of FRET is indicative of the presence of B. pertussis in said biological sample, and wherein the absence of FRET is indicative of the absence of B. pertussis in said biological sample.