Patent ID: 7741036

Claim:
A method of identifying a bacterium comprising: amplifying nucleic acid from said bacterium with at least one pair of oligonucleotide primers to produce an amplification product, wherein said pair of oligonucleotide primers are not specific for a particular bacterial genus, wherein one member of said pair of primers hybridizes to a first conserved region of nucleic acid encoding ribosomal RNA and the other member of said pair of primers hybridizes to a second conserved region of said nucleic acid encoding ribosomal RNA wherein said first and second conserved regions flank a variable nucleic acid region which varies among bacteria; determining the molecular mass of said amplification product by mass spectrometry; and comparing said molecular mass to calculated or measured molecular masses of amplification products of known bacteria produced by using said pair of oligonucleotide primers, thereby identifying said bacterium.