Beacon-mediated exponential amplification reaction (BEAR) using a single enzyme and primer.

Beacon-mediated Exponential Amplification Reaction (BEAR) enables isothermal, exponential signal amplification. BEAR uses only a single enzyme and a single primer. Detection of 0.2 amol of a mitochondrial DNA with a point mutation in less than an hour demonstrates an application of the BEAR technique for nucleic acid research.