FRET studies of the interaction of dimeric cyanine dyes with DNA

Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) is a powerful tool to determine distances between chromophores bound to macromolecules, since the efficiency of the energy transfer from an initially excited donor to an acceptor strongly depends on the distance between the two dye molecules. The structure of the noncovalent complex of double-strand DNA (dsDNA) with thiazol orange dimers (TOTO) allows FRET analysis of two intercalated chromophores. By intercalation of two different TOTO dyes we observe an energy transfer from TOTO-1 as donor and TOTO-3 as acceptor. In this manner we are able to determine the mean distance between two proximate TOTO molecules bound to dsDNA. Thus the maximum number of binding positions for this type of intercalation dyes in the dsDNA can be obtained. Furthermore the dependency of the acceptor emission on the donor concentration is analysed. The emission of TOTO-3 reaches a maximum when the acceptor-to-donor ratio is 1:10.