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OwnerMohankumar R. Sowlay, Stephen M. Hintoninventors
Estimating the term…
A nucleic acid based method is provided for the detection of methanogens in human, animal, plant and in environmental samples of soil, sediment or water that are terrestrial or subterranean in origin. The method is effected by (a) obtaining a biological sample; and (b) analyzing the sample for a nucleic acid sequence/s unique to methanogens, wherein a detectable level of the nucleic acid sequence unique to methanogens is indicative of the presence of methanogens in the sample. Further, a scheme for inferring the identity of the different types of methanogens is provided, wherein, the DNA sequences of the methyl reductase genes detected in that sample are compared to methyl reductase sequences of known methanogens. With this technology, methanogens in samples containing less than {fraction (1/1000)}th of a gram of biomass can be detected.
A nucleic acid probe for the detection of the presence and/or amount of methanogens in terrestrial and subterranean formations comprising at least ten sequential nucleotides or the complement of the ten sequential nucleotides that encode one of the three amino acid sequences, AA328, AA472 or AA442 of FIG. 4.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.