Abstract
Benzo[g]quinazoline-2,4-(lH,3H)-dione (BgQ), a fluorescent thymine analog, was incorporated into an oligopyrimidine (III) able to give rise to a triple-stranded structure by clamping a purine 11-mer (I). The formation of the I-III complex resulted in both a shift of the fluorescence emission maximum and a decreased fluorescence intensity. No such variations were observed on the formation of a Watson-Crick duplex between I and the complementary strand in which a T residue was substituted for BgQ. Therefore, the fluorescence emission of BgQ can be used to selectively monitor the formation of triple helices.
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