C. Kanony et al., Photobleaching of asymmetric cyanines used for fluorescence imaging of single DNA molecules, J AM CHEM S, 123(33), 2001, pp. 7985-7995
The photobleaching of the cyanine dyes YO and YOYO has been investigated fo
r both free and DNA-bound dyes, using absorption and fluorescence spectrosc
opy coupled with fluorescence microscopy. For the free dyes, the nature of
the reactive species involved in the photodegradation process is different
for the monomer and the dimer, as shown by scavenger studies. For DNA-bound
dyes, photoinduced fading of the visible absorption band occurs by differe
nt pathways depending on the drug binding mode and can be attenuated by app
ropriate scavengers. However, none of these scavengers were found to have a
ny significant effect on the photobleaching of dye fluorescence. It appears
that the reduction of fluorescence intensity comes from a quenching of the
dye fluorescence by modified DNA bases, possibly 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2 ' -de
oxyguanosine.