The brightness of a fluorophore can be enhanced by using a FRET pair with multiple donors and single acceptor. This architechture is known to exist in nature, and can be synthetically achieved using dendrons and biological precursors like DNA. Here we present a fluorogenic oligomeric probe which lights up when bound to a cognate protein. The oligomer consists of blue donor dyes, coumarin, that can transfer energy to a terminal Malachite Green (MG) fluorogen through Forster resonance energy transfer. The donor coumarin, 3-azido-7-hydroxycoumarin is clicked to alkyne terminal of a base in a synthetic DNA oligomer. Incorporation of multiple coumarin donor increases the extinction co-efficient of the oligomeric probe.The fluorogenic nature of MG quenches energy transferred from the coumarin, making the whole oligomeric probe fluorogenic. When MG interacts with a cognate protein, it becomes fluorescent thus making the oligomeric probe fluorescent. We present the synthesis and photophysical properties of this fluorogenic nanostructured-protein biosensor.

Light harvesting DNA-protein biosensor

249th National Meeting (2015)

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