LABELED PROBES WITH DIFFERENTIALLY CLEAVABLE LINKERS AND THEIR USE IN DE-CODING DNA AND RNA MOLECULES

The invention is directed to a method for detecting RNA, DNA or protein target sequences bya) Hybridizing a library of probes having the general formula (I) P - (CL-D)x (I)WithP: probes having at least 10 nucleotides or amino acidsCL: cleavable linkerD: fluorescent dyeX: integer between 1 and 5to RNA, DNA or protein target sequences wherein the library comprises probes P having different sequences of nucleotides or amino acids and cleavable linkers CL of different groups which are cleavable with different meansb) Removing unhybridized probes and detecting the hybridized probes via the fluorophores D by a first imagec) Cleaving sequentially by different means each group of chemical linkers CL from the hybridized probes; removing the thus cleaved fluorophores D and detecting the remaining hybridized probes via their fluorophores D by a second imaged) Detecting the removed fluorophores D by comparing the first and second image.e) Obtaining a part of the sequence information of the target sequences via the sequence information of the probes P associated with the removed fluorophores Df) Repeating step c) until all groups of chemical linkers CL are cleaved.