Patent ID: 8420798

Claim:
A permuted nucleic acid probe, comprising: a plurality of nucleic acid molecules, substantially all of which nucleic acid molecules each comprise at least: a first binding region complementary to a first sequence of a target nucleic acid molecule; and a second binding region complementary to a second sequence of a target nucleic acid molecule, the second binding region contiguous with the first binding region, wherein the first binding region and/or the second binding region is permuted such that it is in a different orientation and/or order relative to the orientation and/or order of the first and second binding regions as found in the target nucleic acid sequence, and wherein the first binding region and the second binding region comprise less than 10% of undesired sequences selected from the group consisting of repetitive nucleic acid sequences, conserved domain nucleic acid sequences, and homologous nucleic acid sequences of the target nucleic acid molecule.