The invention relates to a recombinant viral particle capable of delivering a nucleic acid to mammalian cells, the particle including a member of a first specific binding pair capable of binding to a first receptor expressed on the surface of a cell so as to cause infection thereof, and a surface-exposed member of a second specific binding pair capable of binding to a second receptor generally not expressed on the surface of the cell, such that binding of the viral particle to the second recepto...

A restriction site indexing method for selectively amplifying any fragment generated by a Class II restriction enzyme includes adaptors specific to fragment ends containing adaptor indexing sequences complementary to fragment indexing sequences near the termini of fragments generated by Class II enzyme cleavage. A method for combinatorial indexing facilitates amplification of restriction fragments whose sequence is not known.

A sequence directed reagent is constructed by conjugating a methyl naphthoquinone derivative to a hexamethylamino linker attached to the 5' terminus of an oligonucleotide. Annealing this modified fragment of DNA to its complementary sequence allows for target modification subsequent to photochemical activation. The product of this reaction is a covalent crosslink between the reagent and target strands resulting from an alkylation of DNA by the photoexcited quinone. The modified sequence is not l...

Hybridization assay probes specific for Staphylococcus aureus and no other Staphylococcus species.

A nucleotide polymer probe having the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO. 1 or SEQ ID NO. 6 able to hybridize at 60.degree. C. in 0.1M lithium succinate buffer containing 10% lithium lauryl sulfate to rRNA or rDNA from Coccidioides immitis and not to rRNA or rDNA from Auxarthron thaxteri, Blastomyces dermatitidis, Geotrichum candidum, Gymnoascus dugwayensis, Histoplasma capsulatum, and Malbranchea albolutea. A method to distinguish Coccidioides immitis from Auxarthron thaxteri, Blastomyces dermati...

A kit for staining proteins and nucleic acids wherein the stain is a suspension of colloidal metal particles and the proteins and nucleic acids are visualized as a colored signal localized at the binding site of the colloidal metal particles to the proteins or nucleic acids or quantitatively determined at this site following art-known spectrophotometric procedures.

A method for facilitating the transfer of nucleic acids into cells comprising preparing a mixed lipid dispersion of a cationic lipid with a co-lipid in a suitable carrier solvent. The lipid has a structure which includes a lipophilic group derived from cholesterol, a linker bond, a spacer arm including from about 1 to about 20 carbon atoms in a branched or unbranched linear alkyl chain, and a cationic amino group selected from the group consisting of primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary a...

The SELEX (Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential Enrichment) method is disclosed for the identification of nucleic acid ligands. A candidate mixture of single stranded nucleic acids having regions of randomized sequence is contacted with a target compound and those nucleic acids having an increased affinity to the target are partitioned from the remainder of the candidate mixture. The partitioned nucleic acids are amplified to yield a ligand enriched mixture.

Probes for the detection of Streptococcus pyogenes, which are capable of distinguishing it from related species, are provided. Methods of using these probes in hybridization assays, and hybrids formed between the probes and complementary nucleic acids, are disclosed.

The invention provides a method for diagnosis of genetic abnormalities or other genetic conditions which can be readily automated. The method is used to determine the presence or absence of a target sequence in a sample of denatured nucleic acid and entails hybridizing the sample with a probe complementary to a diagnostic portion of the target sequence (the diagnostic probe), and with a probe complementary to a nucleotide sequence contiguous with the diagnostic portion (the contiguous probe), un...