CHED 204 |
| Sulfoindocyanines (commonly known as Cy-dyes) are the fluorescent dyes of choice in single molecule fluorescence studies due to their remarkable photostability. In this work, we characterized the fluorescence properties of the Cy3 dye covalently attached to DNA in various positions; and found that its photophysical properties depend strongly on the environment. For instance, the efficiency of fluorescence of a Cy3 molecule attached to the 5' end of single stranded DNA decreases by a factor of 2 upon annealing to the complementary strand. Although these unusual properties can lead to artifacts during single molecule fluorescence studies, they can also be used to our advantage to follow certain biological processes in real time. For example, we observed the kinetics of the annealing of short DNA strands in real time at room temperature. Our observations exemplify the potential of using Cy3 dyes to study these types of processes. |
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Undergraduate Research Poster Session: Biochemistry
2:30 PM-4:30 PM, Monday, 11 September 2006 Moscone Center -- Hall D, Poster
Division of Chemical Education |