Patent ID: 7541165

Claim:
A method for detecting a single stranded DNA or RNA target polynucleotide in a test sample, said method comprising: (a) hybridizing said single stranded target polynucleotide with a target-specific linker of an abortive promoter cassette, wherein said abortive promoter cassette comprises said target-specific linker that hybridizes with said single-stranded target polynucleotide wherein said target-specific linker is a nucleic acid and comprises a single-stranded region of 5 to 40 nucleotides that is an overhang region of said cassette, and, at the 5′ or 3′ end of said target specific linker, a self-complementary DNA sequence and an RNA-polymerase binding site, wherein said self complementary sequence comprises two partially complementary upper and lower oligonucleotides that form a single-stranded transcription bubble region comprising a defined site from which an initiator and a suitable RNA polymerase can synthesize an abortive oligonucleotide product; (b) incubating said hybridized target polynucleotide and linker of part (a) with an RNA polymerase, an initiator, and a terminator; (c) synthesizing an oligonucleotide transcript that is complementary to the initiation start site of said abortive promoter cassette by an abortive, reiterative process, wherein said process does not use said single-stranded target polynucleotide as a template and wherein said initiator is extended until said terminator is incorporated into said oligonucleotide transcript, thereby synthesizing multiple abortive reiterative oligonucleotide transcripts; and (d) detecting or quantifying said reiterative oligonucleotide transcripts.