Abstract
Molecular beacons are single-stranded oligonucleotide hybridization probes with a stem-and-loop structure that recognize and report the presence of specific nucleic acids in homogeneous solutions (Tyagi et al. 1996). The loop contains a probe sequence that is complementary to a target sequence, and the stem is formed by the annealing of complementary arm sequences that are located on either side of the probe sequence. Paiboonskuwong and Kato (Nucleic Acids Symp Ser (Oxf) 50:327–328, 2006) from the Research Institute for Cell Engineering, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST; Tsukuba Science City, Japan) modified the molecular beacon approach with an aim to detect miRNAs in the mature form. The probe is modified so that when hybridizing with either pre-miRNA or pri-miRNA, its fluorescence is quenched by the guanine in the sequences of pre-miRNA or pri-miRNA complementarily to the probe. Hybridization of the probe with a mature miRNA which has no complementary guanine can result in fluorescent emission. In this way, the modified molecular beacon method can distinguish the mature from the precursor miRNAs.
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Wang, Z., Yang, B. (2010). Molecular Beacon Method. In: MicroRNA Expression Detection Methods. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04928-6_24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04928-6_24
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