In vitro selection of aptamer beacons

摘要

Provided herein are methods of selecting aptamer beacons in vitro using single-stranded nucleic acid species comprising a fluorphore and a random region of N nucleotides. The single-stranded nucleic acid species are annealed to a capture oligonucleotide comprising an F 1 quenching moiety. Aptamer beacons are eluted using a target ligand or analyte to interact with the captured single-stranded nucleic acid species to release it from the capture oligonucleotide. Those selected single-stranded nucleic acid species comprise aptamer beacons. Also provided are the aptamer beacons so selected and methods of detecting a ligand in solution using selected aptamer beacons.