Ultrafast molecular rotor: an efficient sensor for premelting of natural DNA

Structural changes in nucleic acids in the premelting region (T < melting temperature, T(m)) play an important role in the biological activity of DNA at physiological temperature. In the present communication we report the use of an ultrafast molecular rotor as an extrinsic fluorescence sensor to monitor the structural changes in natural DNA at T < T(m), which could not be detected even by circular dichroism spectroscopy. Further, the fluorescence sensor used in the present study is superior than most commonly used DNA stains.