The invention describes reactive dyes having an alkyl spacer attached via a sulfonamide bond to a sulforhodamine 101 fluorophore, and a variety of useful conjugates prepared therefrom. The increased length of the covalent linkage due to the alkyl spacer results in dye-conjugates having a number of surprisingly advantageous properties relative to previous sulforhodamine 101-labeled conjugates, including enhanced solubility and increased fluorescence. The reactive dyes of the present invention are more stable than the known compound sulforhodamine 101 sulfonyl chloride. Novel reactive dyes are described for selective modification of groups other than amines, including thiols and photoreactive derivatives.
The present invention provides methods and non-fluorescent carbocyanine quencher compounds having the general formula: ##STR00001## Wherein the A moiety is a substituted pyridinium, unsubstituted pyridinium, substituted quinolinium, unsubstituted quinolinium, substituted benzazolium, unsubstituted benzazolium, substituted indolinium, or unsubstituted indolinium. The invention further provides luminescent donor molecule-quencher pairs and luminescent donor molecule-quencher-luminescent acceptor molecule conjugates wherein the quencher is a cyanine compound of the present invention. The energy transfer pairs are used to detect an analyte of interest in a sample.
The present invention provides a metal chelator and methods that facilitate binding, detecting, monitoring and quantitating of heavy metal ions in a sample. This metal chelating moiety is a --N,N,O-triacetic acid analog of BAPTA and has the following formula ##STR00001##
Cyanine dye compounds having a negatively charged substituent that are nucleic acid stains, particularly for fluorescent staining of DNA, including compounds having the formula ##STR00001## wherein W forms one or two fused 5- or 6-membered aromatic rings, a has a value of 0 or 1, n has a value of 0, or 1, X is O, S, or Se, and D is a pyridinium, or quinolinium moiety, provided that the compound has at least one negatively charged substituent.
Chemical compounds having a high selectivity for double stranded DNA over RNA and single stranded DNA are disclosed. The chemical compounds are stains that become fluorescent upon illumination and interaction with double stranded DNA, but exhibit reduced or no fluorescence in the absence of double stranded DNA. The compounds can be used in a variety of biological applications to qualitatively or quantitatively assay DNA, even in the presence of RNA.
Compositions, methods, and kits for detecting and monitoring kinase or phosphatase activity are described. The compositions typically include a peptide, a detectable moiety, and a protease cleavage site. Modification of a peptide by a kinase or phosphatase alters the proteolytic sensitivity of the peptide, resulting in a change of a detectable property of the composition. Panel assays for determining substrates or modulators of kinase or phosphatase activity are also described.
