Molecular beacons, single-stranded oligonucleotides that have a fluorescent "reporter" group at one end and a fluorescence "quencher" at the other, do not suffer from these shortcomings.1 When free in solution, a beacon's complementary arms bind to each other, forming an internal hairpin that brings the reporter and quencher groups together and dousing fluorescence. When the probe meets its target, it unfolds and forms a stable hybrid, and the reporter dye emits a fluorescent signal. Because the dilution or digestion step has been eliminated, molecular beacons are suitable for use in many quantitative and qualitative assays including the real-time monitoring of DNA amplification during PCR.
The software designers at PREMIER Biosoft of Palo Alto, Calif., have responded to the need for fast and accurate beacon design with the release of Beacon Designer™, a new tool for the design of molecular beacons and primer pairs. According to Kay Brown, product manager at ...
