Patent ID: 7998673

Claim:
A hybridisation beacon which is an oligonucleotide where (a) the oligonucleotide has substantially no secondary structure, (b) the oligonucleotide is formed of nucleotide residues of which more than one is labelled with a fluorescein based reporter wherein the beacon does not include an associated quencher, (c) the reporter-labelled nucleotide residues are positioned internally within the oligonucleotide sequence, (d) the oligonucleotide is fully complementary to and hybridizes to one allele of a known target polynucleotide which, optionally, has a known polymorphism/mutation, the oligonucleotide capable of exhibiting a higher level of signal when in the form of the hybrid than when in single-stranded form, and (e) the oligonucleotide probe is modified at its 3′end so as to prevent chain extension during PCR amplification.