Patent ID: 7816080

Claim:
A method of characterizing a target organism suspected of being a member of a given taxonomic group comprising the steps of: (a) selecting at least one intronic region known to be found in some or all members of the taxonomic group, wherein the at least one intronic region comprises an organellar intron gene sequence or a nuclear Group I or Group II intron gene sequence, further wherein members of the taxonomic group are distinguishable by characteristics of the at least one intronic region; (b) analyzing the intronic region of the target organism to determine intronic region characteristics of the target organism, wherein the intronic region characteristics comprise the presence or absence of an intron gene sequence, an insertion site of the intron gene sequence, a length of an amplified nucleic acid product, and a sequence of the amplified nucleic acid product, wherein analyzing the intronic region comprises a method selected from one or more of the group consisting of (i) hybridizing an exogenous nucleic acid sequence to the intronic region, mRNA or the amplified nucleic acid product, (ii) cleaving the intronic region or amplified nucleic acid product with a cleaving agent, (iii) sequencing a portion of the intronic region RNA or DNA or the amplified nucleic acid product with a nucleic acid sequencer, (iv) electrophoresing a portion of the intronic region or amplified nucleic acid product through a solution, and (v) detecting intronic regions encoding a protein by an immunoassay; and (c) comparing the intronic region characteristics of the target organism to the characteristics of the members of the taxonomic group to characterize the target organism.