LOOP-SHAPED PRIMER EMPLOYED IN NUCLEIC ACID AMPLIFICATION AND THE USE THEREOF

摘要

Loop-shaped primer used in nucleic acid amplification and the use thereof are provided. The present invention belongs to the area of biotechnology. The primer is an oligonucleotide with 3-20 bases in both 3'and 5'ends which can be combined together to form a double-strand under appropriate conditions, resulting in the primer forming a stem-loop structure. The double-stranded structure is opened and the stem-loop structure dissolves when the primer recognizes and hybridizes with the target sequence. If the target sequence is not present the primer can form a stem-loop structure automatically by self-annealing. The primer can comprise a universal tag sequence or not. Together with universal tag sequence primer the primer comprising the universal tag sequence can be used for a second round of amplification. The primer of present invention has high specificity and does not form a primer dimmer. The primer of the present invention is easy to design and is suitable for measuring gene expression and detecting featues of nucleic acids such as SNPs and rare mutations.