A METHOD OF REGULATING OLIGONUCLEOTIDE FUNCTIONALITY

摘要

The present invention relates generally to a method of regulating oligonucleotide functionality and, more particularly, to a method of regulating the functionality of a primer or probe. The method of the invention is designed to provide a means to selectively inactivate or activate the functionality of an oligonucleotide, such as a primer, thereby providing means to regulate the progress of any method using that oligonucleotide. The development of a means to regulate the functionality of an oligonucleotide, such as a primer, is useful in a range of applications including, but not limited to, amplification reactions such as PCR, isothermal amplification and nucleic acid strand extension. With respect to amplification reactions, these have wide utility including the diagnosis and/or monitoring of disease conditions which are characterised by specific gene sequences and the characterisation or analysis of specific gene regions of interest.