Claims
- 1. An arrangement of discrete particles, comprising:
a plurality of polynucleotides; a plurality of discrete particles that are fixed in position relative to the other discrete particles in the arrangement, wherein each discrete particle is complexed with a different polynucleotide; and wherein the identity of the polynucleotide is determined by a location of the discrete particle in the arrangement.
- 2. The arrangement of claim 1, further comprising at least one enclosure in which the discrete particles are arranged.
- 3. The arrangement of claim 2, wherein there are a plurality of enclosures and the plurality of enclosures are arranged side by side.
- 4. A method for analyzing a target nucleic acid, comprising the steps of:
contacting the target nucleic acid with a plurality of polynucleotide probes, wherein the probes are complexed with a plurality of discrete particles in an arrangement whereby the discrete particles can be discriminated by a location of the discrete particle; detecting those probes that are complementary to the target nucleic acid; and analyzing the target nucleic acid from the complementary probes.
- 5. The method of claim 4, wherein at least two of the complementary probes overlap.
- 6. The method of claim 5, wherein a sequence is compiled in the analyzing step.
- 7. The method of claim 4, wherein an informative portion of the probes is shorter than the probes full length.
- 8. The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps of:
contacting the plurality of discrete particles and the target nucleic acid with a plurality of free oligonucleotides; covalently joining a compelmentary free probe, bound at a site in the target nucleic acid to a complementary probe complexed to the discrete particle that is bound to a site on the target nucleic acid that is adjacent to the site on which the free probe is bound; and detecting the free probe that has been covalently joined to the probe of the discrete particle. The method of claim 8, wherein at least two of the complementary probes overlap.
- 10. The method of claim 8, wherein a sequence is compiled in the analyzing step.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This patent application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/959,365, filed on Oct. 28, 1997, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/947,779, filed on Oct. 9, 1997.
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09083861 |
May 1998 |
US |
Child |
10200723 |
Jul 2002 |
US |
Continuation in Parts (2)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
08959365 |
Oct 1997 |
US |
Child |
09083861 |
May 1998 |
US |
Parent |
08947779 |
Oct 1997 |
US |
Child |
08959365 |
Oct 1997 |
US |