title: Development of label-free molecular beacons based on abasic site-binding fluorescence molecules.
abstract: Here we report on a class of label-free molecular beacons (MBs) based on a non-covalent interaction with abasic site (AP site)-binding fluorescence molecules. In contrast to conventional MBs that require the chemical labelling with fluorophores and quenchers, our MB simply contains the AP site in the stem moiety, so that a small molecule specifically binds to the AP site. This binding event is accompanied by a significant quenching of its fluorescence, and thus a closed state of the AP site-containing MB (APMB) shows almost no fluorescence. Upon hybridization with a complementary DNA, APMB undergoes a conformational change to take an open state, resulting in an effective fluorescence enhancement due to a release of the molecule from the AP site. These sensing functions of APMB are discussed with a view towards further development of gene detection chemistry based on DNA-binding small molecules.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, and CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8578, Japan.
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Seiichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nishizawa
authors.forename: Norio
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Teramae
mesh_terms: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry*; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes / Q000737:chemistry*; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes