FLUORESCENT DYES SPECIFIC FOR QUADRUPLEX DNA

Fluorescent dyes which are specific for duplex DNA have found a wide r ange of applications from staining gels to visualization of chromosome s. Porphyrin dyes have been found which are highly fluorescent in the presence of quadruplex but not duplex DNA, These dyes may offer a rout e to the specific detection of quadruplex DNA under biologically impor tant conditions. There are three types of DNA quadruplex structures, a nd these may play important roles in telomere, centromere, triplet rep eat, integration sites and other DNAs, and this first set of porphyrin dyes show some selectivity between the quadruplex types.