Cyanine Dyes - Nucleic Acids Interactions

Studies on dye-DNA interaction have attracted considerable attention owing to its wide facet of applications in both chemical and biological assays. Cyanine dyes have been extensively used in tracing nucleic acids due to their significant change in colour due to dye-nucleic acid binding. The dyes aggregate on DNA templates and the resultant photophysical characteristics of the aggregates can be exploited to reveal the structure of the template. Interaction of these dyes with peptide nucleic acid has also generated wide interest for unveiling many biochemical processes.