LAUSR

Abstract Cyanine dyes have attracted more and more interest due to their controllable assembly and disassembly process with biomolecular templates. The self-assembly of cyanine dye not only depend on the environment, but also on their structures. Here, we report assembly and disassembly of two cyanine dyes, a dimeric cyaine dye (TC-P4) and its corresponding monomer (TC). In PBS, these dyes could form aggregates. The parallel c-myc G-quadruplex as a template causes the transformation of TC-P4 from H-aggregates to dimer and monomer; while duplex and single-stranded DNAs could not. The interaction between these DNAs motifs and TC could all induce the appearance of monomer band. Parallel c-myc G-quadruplex could enhance the fluorescence intensity of TC-P4 and TC. The self-assembly and disassembly of TC and TC-P4 could be regulated and used as probes for G-quadruplex recognition from duplex and single-stranded DNAs in solution.