Novel DNA/RNA-targeting amino acid beacon for the versatile incorporation at any position within the peptide backbone.

One-pot tandem synthesis was for the first time applied to attach fluorophore to the amino acid side chain, yielding amino acid ready for peptide coupling at the N-terminus, and also upon activation at the C-terminus. Two new compounds differing only in fluorophore-linker length showed exceptional fluorimetric and CD recognition between DS-RNA and DS-DNA, thus being promising beacons for versatile peptide incorporation.