Our BlackBerry™ (BBQ™) quenchers are excellent quenchers of long-wavelength fluorophores in both FRET and contact modes. They exhibit an absorption maximum at ca. 650 nm and have useful absorbance between 550 and 750 nm. The tricyclic 8-alkoxyjulolidine moiety is a powerful pi-donor that affords a surprising bathochromic shift when compared to related compounds. A key advantage of the BBQ-650™ is its stability to ammonia and oxidation conditions. Due to the lipophilicity of the quencher, cleavage from the support may be slow.
Our original 3'-BBQ-650™ CPG (BL2010), containing a succinate linker, allows for incorporation at the 3'-terminus, however there are other options. 3'-BBQ-650™ CPG II (BL2020) contains a diglycolate linker to facilitate cleavage. 3'-BBQ-650™ CPG III (BL2030) utilizes a 1,3,5-triol framework, which is two methylene units longer than the 1,2,3-triol framework that is employed with BL2010 and BL2020. The one-carbon extension between each of the oxygen atoms provides an architecture that allows a one step cleavage with AMA while also minimizing the occurrence of impurities that lack the quencher tag. The oligo purity observed with BL 2030 after cleavage and deprotection rivals that seen with BL2020 after the two step protocol. Like BL2020, BL2030 also has a fast cleaving linker, but AMA appears to provide markedly superior oligo yield as compared to NH₄OH.
We also offer versions for incorporation into oligonucleotides internally (BBQ-650™-dT, BL1010), or at the 5'-terminus (5'-BBQ-650™, BL1020 and 5'-BBQ-650™(DMT), BL1030). In addition, BBQ-650™ NHS Ester (BL3010) and BBQ-650™ TEG azide (BL3030) are available for postsynthetic labeling of amine-modified oligonucleotides.