detected such that hybridization will take place under the conditions employed alternatively a nucleic acid capture moiety can also be a linear nucleic acid sequence such as a single stranded dna or rna nucleic acid comprising at least one nucleic add sequence which sequence is complementary to the consensus sequence of all members of the family of target sequences as used herein the term u201c consensus sequence u201d means an idealized sequence that represents the nucleotides most often present at each position in a given segment of all members of the family of target sequences one method of determining a consensus sequence is to use a computer program to compare the target nucleic acid sequence and all its family member sequences for which a consensus sequence is desired for this purpose a commercial program with the underlying computer algorithm provided by the national biomedical research foundation using a dot matrix may be conveniently employed the program involves inputting the nucleic acid sequences of the target nucleic acid sequence and all its generic variants and defining a window size for base pair homology the program employs graphics to compare the sequences on different axes and a dot appears where there is at least substantial homology as used herein the term u201c target nucleic acid sequence and all its genetic variants u201d refers to the wild type nucleic acid sequence and all base mismatch variants of the wild type sequence once the consensus sequence has been determined a nucleic acid sequence complementary to the consensus sequence is synthesized by methods well known in the art.