| abstract |
Disclosed is a method and compositions for the sensitive detection of the amount and location of specific nucleic acid sequences. The method makes use of a branched oligomer, referred to as a lollipop oligomer, that has a tail portion, a right arm portion, and a left arm portion. These three components are joined at a common junction making a three-tailed structure. The two arms each end with sequences complementary to adjacent sequences in a target sequence. This allows the right and left arms to be ligated together when the oligomer is hybridized to the target sequence, thus topologically linking the oligomer to the target sequence. The tail portion can then be detected at the location of the target sequence. |