Bathophenanthroline‐ruthenium(II) complexes as non‐radioactive labels for oligonucleotides which can be measured by time‐resolved fluorescence techniques

Abstract

Abstract The specific attachment of bathophenanthroline‐ruthenium(II) complexes as non‐radioactive label molecules to synthetically 5′‐NH 2 ‐modified oligonucleotides is described. After excitation by light pulses, the fluorescence of these labels can be measured by a time‐resolved mode woth high sensitivity. No quenching takes place due to coupling of the Ru complexes to the DNA. Ru‐complex‐labelled oligonucleotides still hybridize specifically to complementary DNA sequences, and no quenching is observed in the course of the hybridization process.