Molecular Probes™ dimeric cyanine nucleic acid dyes are among the highest sensitivity fluorescent probes available fornucleic acid staining. In addition to their high affinity for nucleic acids, cyanine dimers are essentially nonfluorescent in the absence of nucleic acids and exhibit 100- to 1000-fold fluorescence enhancements upon binding to DNA. The extinction coefficients and fluorescence quantum yields of the cyanine dimers bound to DNA are high, resulting in very bright fluorescence signals.

The dimeric cyanine dyes are useful for many applications. Their bright fluorescence signals and low backgrounds make them ideal for staining nucleic acids on solid supports, such as microarrays. They are also useful as nuclear and chromosome counterstains for multicolor fluorescence labeling experiments. The extraordinary stability of the dye–nucleic acid complexes makes it possible to prestain nucleic acid samples prior to gel or capillary electrophoresis.

The dimeric cyanine nucleic acid stains are supplied in a unit size of 200 µL as 1 mM solutions in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO).