Patent ID: 6994960

Claim:
A method of detecting a difference of one or more nucleotides between a nucleic acid molecule to be tested and a reference nucleic acid molecule wherein the location of said one or more nucleotide that are different between the nucleic acid molecule to be tested and the reference nucleic acid molecule is unknown , said method comprising subjecting the test nucleic acid molecule to single-base-specific cleavage to generate oligonucleotide fragments, separating the resulting oligonucleotide fragments based on mass by MALDI-TOF MS to produce a fingerprint of the oligonucleotide fragments comprising one or more peaks wherein a peak represents the mass of each fragment and identifying an altered peak relative to said reference nucleic acid molecule subjected to the same procedure wherein the presence of an altered peak is indicative of a difference of one or more nucleotides in said tested nucleic acid molecule relative to said reference nucleic acid molecule.