Molecular Beacon Probe Fluorescent Detection of DNA

Thursday, February 23, 2023
Edinburgh Instruments Ltd.

Molecular beacon probes are a sequence of nucleotides (the building blocks of DNA and RNA) that can be used to fluorescently detect the presence of a specific sequence of DNA or RNA. With real-world examples as PCR quantification, in vivo RNA detection, pathogen detection and viral load quantification. The use of molecular beacons, coupled with a sensitive spectrofluorometer facilitates the measurement of extremely low concentrations of DNA or RNA. In this application note, nanomolar concentrations of cDNA were quantified using a molecular beacon while controlling the temperature of incubation and measuring the sample emission with an Edinburgh Instruments FS5 Spectrofluorometer.