Texas Red NHS

This modification is a post synthesis conjugation to a primary amino group thus an additional modification with an amino group is required. A C3, C6 or C12 amino group can be placed at the 5' or for the 3' end a C3 or C7 amino and for internal positions an amino modified base is used, e.g Amino dT C6.

YIELD
NHS based modifications are post synthesis conjugation performed using a primary amino group. The yield is lower as compared to direct automated coupling of modifications that are available as amidites. Approximate yield for various scales are given below.

~2 nmol final yield for 50 nmol scale synthesis.
~5 nmol final yield for 200 nmol scale synthesis.
~16 nmol final yield for 1 umol scale synthesis

Sulforhodamine 101 acid chloride (Texas Red) is a red-purple fluorescent dye used for labeling oligonucleotides. Texas Red has an absorbance maximum of 589 nm and an emission maximum of 615 nm. Texas Red can be used in real-time PCR applications as a reporter moiety in TaqMan probes (1), Scorpion primers (2) and Molecular Beacons (3). For such probes, Texas Red is most commonly paired with the dark quencher BHQ-2, as the two have excellent spectral overlap.

Texas Red can be used to label DNA oligos for use as hybridization probes in a variety of in vivo and in vitro research or diagnostic applications, as well as for structure-function studies of DNA, RNA, and protein-oligonucleotide complexes. Oligos labeled with Texas Red at the 5'-end can be used as PCR and DNA sequencing primers to generate fluorescently-labeled PCR, sequencing or genetic analysis (AFLP or microsatellite) products.

Because Texas Red currently only is produced in the form of an NHS ester, oligos first must be synthesized with an Amino Linker modification (either at the ends or internally). The Texas Red NHS ester is then manually attached to the oligo through the amino group in a separate reaction post-synthesis.

References
1. Livak, K.J., Flood, S.J.A., Marmaro, J., Giusti, W., Deetz, K. Oligonucleotides with fluorescent dyes at opposite ends provide a quenched probe system useful for detecting PCR product and nucleic acid hybridization.PCR Methods Appl. (1995), 4: 1-6.
2. Thelwell, N., Millington, S., Solinas, A., Booth, J., Brown, T. Mode of action and application of Scorpion primers to mutation detection. Nucleic Acids Res. (2000), 28: 3752-3761.
3. Tyagi, S., Kramer, F.R. Molecular beacons: probes that fluoresce upon hybridization. Nat. Biotechnol. (1996), 14: 303-308.
- Texas Red NHS