Patent ID: 7297518

Claim:
A method of analyzing sequence of a target polynucleotide, comprising: (a) providing a primed target polynucleotide comprising a substantially complementary fluorescently labeled primer and a target polynucleotide, the primed target polynucleotide being immobilized to a substrate comprising a polyelectrolyte coated multilayer surface, wherein the target polynucleotide is randomly attached to the polyelectrolyte multilayer coated surface with single molecule resolution; (b) adding a first fluorescently labeled nucleotide to the surface of the substrate under conditions whereby the first nucleotide is added to the primer; (c) determining whether a fluorescence signal from the fluorescently labeled nucleotide is present in at least one molecule of the primed target polynucleotide on the surface of the substrate, wherein the presence of the signal from the fluorescently labeled nucleotide indicates that the fluorescent nucleotide is added to the primer; (d) removing the fluorescent signal from the fluorescently labeled nucleotide; and (e) repeating steps (b)-(d) with a further fluorescently labeled nucleotide, thereby analyzing the sequence of the target polynucleotide, wherein if the primer label and the nucleotide label are the same, detecting and then bleaching the fluorescent signal from the primer label prior to adding the first fluorescently labeled nucleotide.