Characterization and use of tricyclic fluorescent nucleic acid base analogues.

The two recently developed nucleic acid probe molecules tC and tC(O) both have unique properties compared to other molecules in the family of fluorescent base analogues.(1-5) These tricyclic base analogues both form very stable base pairs with guanine and give minimal perturbations to the native structure of DNA.(2) We have found that tC(O) is the brightest fluorescent base analogue reported(4) and that tC also is very bright and has a fluorescence quantum yield that is virtually insensitive to its surrounding microenvironment within the nucleic acid(3). These base analogues have so far been used in FRET-studies of a DNA-polymerase system(6) and in initial anisotropy-studies of DNA-containing systems(4).