Fluorophore-based oligonucleotide probes with a universal element

There is provided a method of detecting the presence of a target polynucleotide and/or sequence variations within the target polynucleotide using a probe system comprising two independent partner oligonucleotide components wherein the first oligonucleotide has a first and second section, wherein the first section comprises a nucleotide sequence that is labelled with at least one visually detectable label and is not capable of hybridising to the nucleotide sequence of the target polynucleotide; and wherein the second section comprises a nucleotide sequence that is capable of hybridising to a portion of the sequence of the target polynucleotide; and the second oligonucleotide has a first and second section, wherein the first section comprises a nucleotide sequence which is capable of hybridising to a nucleotide sequence of the first section of the first oligonucleotide; and the second section comprises a nucleotide sequence that is capable of hybridising to a nucleotide sequence of the target polynucleotide tha