Patent ID: 7202026

Claim:
A method for identifying and/or quantifying a biological organism in a sample by detecting a nucleotide sequence of said biological organism, wherein said nucleotide sequence presents a homology higher than 30% with at least 4 other homologous nucleotide sequences from other biological organisms, comprising: amplifying or copying at least one of said homologous nucleotide sequences into full-length double-stranded target homologous nucleotide sequences having between 100 and 800 bases using primer pairs which are capable of amplifying or copying at least four of said target homologous nucleotide sequences from other organisms; contacting said full-length double-stranded target homologous nucleotide sequences resulting from the amplifying step with single-stranded different capture nucleotide sequences, at least two of said single-stranded capture nucleotide sequences being specific for at least two of said target homologous nucleotide sequences, said single-stranded capture nucleotide sequences being covalently bound in an array to an insoluble solid support via a spacer comprising a nucleotide sequence greater than 40 bases, said array comprising at least four different bound single-stranded capture nucleotide sequences/cm 2 of solid support surface, and wherein each of said single-stranded capture nucleotide sequences comprises a nucleotide sequence of about 5 to about 60 bases wherein said nucleotide sequence of about 5 to about 60 bases is able to specifically bind to one of the full-length target homologous nucleotide sequences without binding to said at least four other homologous nucleotide sequences, wherein said array also contains consensus capture nucleotide sequences for a common detection of said full-length target homologous nucleotide sequences, said consensus capture nucleotide sequences having a length specific of the target comprising between about 10 and about 1000 bases, and detecting specific hybridization of the full-length target homologous nucleotide sequence to said single-stranded capture nucleotide sequences, wherein said single-stranded capture nucleotide sequence is bound to the insoluble solid support at a specific location upon the array, and wherein the binding between said full-length target homologous nucleotide sequence and its corresponding single-stranded capture nucleotide sequence forms a signal at the expected location, the detection of said signal allowing a discrimination of the target homologous nucleotide sequence being specific of said organism from other organisms from the same or other groups, sub-groups or sub-sub-groups of said organisms.