Detection of nucleic acids by strand invasion based amplification

1. A method for detection of a target nucleic acid sequence in a sample in the presence of at least one recombinase comprising contacting said sample with at least one oligonucleotide probe comprising a fluorophore, a quencher and a region complementary to said target nucleic acid sequence, wherein the sequence of said oligonucleotide probe comprises at least 20% RNA nucleotides, modified RNA nucleotides and/or PNA nucleotides, wherein the probe comprises one or more modified RNA nucleotides selected from 2′-fluoro ribonucleotides, 2′-O-methyl ribonucleotides and/or LNA ribonucleotides, wherein said oligonucleotide probe is single stranded, wherein the method further comprises strand invasion based amplification of said target nucleic acid sequence under isothermal conditions promoting amplification of said target nucleic acid sequence comprising contacting said sample with:

(i) at least one upstream primer and at least one downstream primer, each comprising a region complementary to said target nucleic acid sequence, and

(ii) a strand invasion oligonucleotide comprising a region complementary to said target nucleic acid sequence;

wherein the strand invasion oligonucleotide renders at least a portion of the target nucleic acid sequence single-stranded to allow the binding of the at least one upstream primer and at least one downstream primer and said probe;

and wherein said recombinase is used for strand invasion of said target nucleic acid sequence;

further wherein the target nucleic acid sequence is double stranded.

2. A method according to claim 1 , where said oligonucleotide probe is capable of priming amplification of said target nucleic acid sequence and functions as said at least one upstream or downstream primer.

3. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said recombinase is selected from UvsX or RecA.

4. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said oligonucleotide probe comprises the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 24, 25 or 30 or a variant of any thereof.

5. A method according to claim 1 , where the sequence of said oligonucleotide probe comprises at least 20% 2′-fluoro ribonucleotides, 2′-O-methyl ribonucleotides, and/or LNA ribonucleotides.

6. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said upstream and downstream primers are less than 25 nucleotides in length, and have 5′ binding sites of at least 45 nucleotides apart on the target sequence.

7. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the sequence of said oligonucleotide probe comprises at least 20% modified RNA nucleotides and/or PNA nucleotides or comprises from 20% to 60% RNA nucleotides.

8. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the sequence of said oligonucleotide probe comprises at least 50% 2′-fluoro ribonucleotides, 2′-O-methyl ribonucleotides, or LNA nucleotides.

9. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the sequence of said oligonucleotide probe comprises at least 50% 2′fluoro ribonucleotides or LNA nucleotides.

10. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the sequence of said oligonucleotide probe comprises at least 50% LNA nucleotides.

11. A method according to claim 10 , wherein said oligonucleotide probe is of 15-25 nucleotides in length.

12. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said oligonucleotide probe comprises a region of secondary structure whose conformation is altered on binding to the target nucleic acid sequence.

13. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said method does not comprise contacting said sample with RNase H.

14. A method for measuring for a target nucleic acid sequence from a pathogen in a sample from a subject, comprising carrying out a method as defined in claim 1 in a sample from a subject suspected of having the target nucleic acid sequence from said pathogen.