Interaction of spermine-alanine functionalized perylene bisimide dye aggregates with ds-DNA/RNA secondary structure

We report for the first time on the interaction of self-assembled perylene bisimide (PBI) dye aggregates with polynucleotides, revealing very high (nM) binding constants and exceptional thermal stabilization of double-stranded (ds)-DNA/RNA. Induced CD profiles of PBI dimer aggregates formed within DNA/RNA grooves show high sensitivity on the steric properties of the binding site, suggesting the applicability of such self-adjusting excitonically coupled FBI dimers for the sensing of the DNA/RNA secondary structure.