The hybridization characteristics of oligonucleotide-alkaline phosphatase conjugate probes were examined in bead-based sandwich hybridization reactions using single-stranded nucleic acid targets and oligonucleotide-polystyrene capture beads. Enzymatic activity was monitored using a chemiluminescent substrate and calibration plots of chemiluminescent signal versus conjugate concentration were used to estimate the sandwich hybridization efficiencies. Improved hybridization behavior was noted using glycerol as an additive and by increasing the length of the probe and alkyl spacer of the conjugates. The chemiluminescent assay is at least as sensitive as those employing 32P-labeled probes and can detect as little as 10-20 amol of target RNA. The linear relationship of chemiluminescent signal versus target assayed provides a method for quantitating unknown target samples. A single human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infected cell in a background of 10(6) uninfected cells is facilely detected when this enzyme-based detection assay is prefaced with a self-sustained sequence-replication amplification reaction.