Patent ID: 8278039

Claim:
A system for determining sequence information for a polynucleotide, comprising: (a) an array of DNA molecules, wherein each DNA molecule comprises a fragment of said polynucleotide; (b) a set of informative oligonucleotide probes, wherein each probe comprises a label and a nucleotide sequence comprising the formula N x B y N z , wherein: (i) each N is independently a degenerate base; (ii) each B is independently an informative base; (iii) x and z are each at least one; and (iv) y is 2 to 20; (c) a detector configured to detect labeled probes from said set once the probes have hybridized to DNA molecules in the array, and to send data indicating the labeled probes that have been detected to a computer processor; and (d) a computer processor programmed to receive said data from the detector, and to process the data to obtain said sequence information for the polynucleotide.