ASSAYING NUCLEOTIDES IN SOLUTION USING A FLUORESCENT INTENSITY QUENCHING EFFECT

摘要

The invention provides a method for rapidly, economically and efficently sequencing and assaying nucleotides in a liquid medium using laser induced fluorescence of antisense probes, including PNA probes. Fluorescent intensity of the resulting medium is inversely proportional to the hybridization efficiency of the probes with respect to t he target sequence. The method is particularly advantageous in not requiring separation of unhybridized probes and hybridization complexes prio r to detection. The method can be used to identify accessible regions in folded nucleotide sequences, to determine the number of mismatche d pairs in a hybridization complex, and to map genomes.