Fluorescent Responsive Probes for Oligonucleotide Detection

摘要

A wide variety of probes have been designed and synthesized for detecting oligonucleotides and polynucleotides in vivo and in vitro. Of these, molecular beacons (MBs) and binary probes (BPs) have shown particular applicability to specific problems such as mRNA tracking, single nucleotide polymorphism, and polymerase chain reaction quantization. MBs are hairpin oligonucleotide probes, containing a fluorophore and a quencher, that change their fluorescent properties upon binding to a given target. BPs, on the other hand, consist of two fluorophore-containing oligonucleotide strands that hybridize to adjacent regions of a target sequence, thus favoring energy transfer between the neighboring fluorophores. These probes have been extensively studied and modified to enhance their detection characteristics using different dye combinations, three-dye arrays, excimer-forming molecules and metal complexes. The design, applicability and advantages of these probes for the detection and tracing of oligonuclotides in different media will be discussed.