Patent ID: 7504218

Claim:
A method of detecting a target nucleic acid sequence, comprising the steps of (1) incubating the target sequence with a probe capable of binding to a target nucleic acid sequence, said probe comprising (a) a first sequence which is at least partially complementary to a target sequence and has a stem portion and a loop portion, wherein the loop portion does not hybridize to the target sequence: (b) a second sequence which is at least partially complementary to the stem portion of the first sequence: (c) a first moiety operatively coupled to the first sequence: and (d) a second moiety operatively coupled to the second sequence: wherein the 3′ end of the first sequence is linked to the 5′ end of the second sequence: wherein the stem portion of the first sequence and the second sequence are capable of hybridizing to each other when the probe is not hybridized to the target sequence: and wherein hybridization of the probe to the target sequence causes either the first moiety or the second moiety to produce a detectable signal: and (2) detecting a signal from the first or second moiety, wherein the step of incubating is performed in the presence of a nuclease.