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Updated: Mar 22, 2026

Real-time Imaging of Single Engineered RNA Transcripts in Living Cells Using Ratiometric Bimolecular Beacons
Published on: August 6, 2014
A FRET-enabled molecular peptide beacon with a significant red shift for the ratiometric detection of nucleic acids
Debabrata Maity1, Juanjuan Jiang, Martin Ehlers
1Institute for Organic Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45117, Essen, Germany. carsten.schmuck@uni-due.de.
Abstract:
A cationic molecular peptide beacon NAP1 functionalized with a fluorescence resonance energy transfer-pair at its ends allows the ratiometric detection of ds-DNA with a preference for AT rich sequences. NAP1 most likely binds in a folded form into the minor groove of ds-DNA, which results in a remarkable change in its fluorescence properties. As NAP1 exhibits quite low cytotoxicity, it can also be used for imaging of nuclear DNA in cells.

