Perylene-3,4:9,10-tetracarboxylic acid bisimide dye as an artificial DNA base surrogate

A phosphoramidite of the perylene bisimide dye was synthesized as a DNA building block that allows incorporation of this chromophore as an artificial nucleoside surrogate either at the 5'-terminus or at internal positions of duplex DNA. The internally incorporated perylene bisimide chromophore shows strong interactions with the DNA base stack; the 5'-terminally attached perylene bisimide is able to induce dimerization of two whole DNA duplexes.