Fluorescence detection of specific sequence of nucleic acids by oxazole yellow-linked oligonucleotides. Homogeneous quantitative monitoring of in vitro transcription.

We have developed a fluorescent DNA probe, oxazole yellow (YO)-linked oligonucleotide complementary to a target DNA/RNA, which can enhance the fluorescence on hybridizing with a target nucleotide. We demonstrated the applicability of the YO-linked oligonucleotide probe to real-time monitoring of the in vitro transcription process of a plasmid DNA constructed containing the 5'-terminus non-coded region of hepatitis C virus RNA. In the process of in vitro transcription in the presence of YO-linked complementary oligonucleotide, the fluorescence of the reaction mixture showed a time-dependent linear increase corresponding to the generated target RNA product.