The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 22, 2002
Filed:
May. 17, 1999
Thomas L. Romick, Chino Hills, CA (US);
Mark S. Fraser, Fullerton, CA (US);
ConAgra Grocery Products Company, Fullerton, CA (US);
Abstract
A method or detecting the presence of living or dead microorganisms and viruses in a sample comprises adding to a pre-determined volume of a sample comprising nucleic acid-containing microbe (s) and/or virus (es), known amounts of a pair of primers binding to sequences up-stream and down-stream to a universal or specific microbial and/or viral nucleic acid sequence and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) reagents, cycling the mixture to amplify the universal or specific microbial and/or viral nucleic acid sequence; adding a polynucleotide comprising a DNA internal segment that is hybridizably complementary to at least a portion of the universal or specific nucleic acid sequence; and a first and a second DNA arm segment adjoining the DNA internal segment, the first DNA arm segment ending in a 5′ terminus and the second DNA arm segment ending in a 3′ terminus, the arms segments comprising nucleotide sequences such that they are hybridizably complementary to one another. Optionally, the terminus of one arm segment is operatively connected to a fluorogen and the terminus of the other arm segment is operatively connected to a quencher, such that the polynucleotide comprises a “fluorescent beacon.”