Photophysical processes of the spectroscopic RNA probe 2-(1-ethynylpyrene)-adenosine (PyA)

Abstract

Abstract. We examine the photoinduced excited state dynamics of pyrene modified adenosine, a versatile probe for folding and hybridization of ribonucleic acids. Measurements in different solvents revealed complex ultrafast dynamics, but high robustness since the overall fluorescence quantum yield ( f ) is hardly affected. The result is a strong fluorescent RNA-probe whose spectral properties change in a defined way upon environmental changes.