Polynucleotides encoding an undercaprenyl diphosphate synthase of staphylococcus aureus

An isolated polynucleotide comprising a polynucleotide sequence or the full complement of the entire length of the polynucleotide sequence, wherein the polynucleotide sequence hybridizes to the full complement of SEQ ID NO:1, wherein the hybridization conditions include incubation at 42° C. in a solution comprising:

• 50% formamide, 5×SSC (150 mM NaCl, 15 mM trisodium citrate), 50 mM sodium phosphate (pH7.6), 5×Denhardt's solution, 10% dextran sulfate, and 20 micrograms/ml denatured, sheared salmon sperm DNA, followed by washing in 0.1×SSC at 65° C.;
• and, wherein the polynucleotide sequence is identical to SEQ ID NO:1, except that, over the entire length corresponding to SEQ ID NO:1, nn nucleotides are substituted, inserted or deleted, wherein nn satisfies the following expression
• nn≦xn−(xn·y)
• wherein xn is the total number of nucleotides in SEQ ID NO:1, y is at least 0.95, and wherein any non-integer product of xn and y is rounded down to the nearest integer before subtracting the product from xn;
• and wherein the polynucleotide sequence detects Staphylococcus aureus by hybridization and wherein the polynucleotide sequence is not genomic DNA.