What does Alexa Fluor 568 stain?

Alexa Fluor 568 Overview

Alexa Fluor 568 is a fluorescent dye belonging to the Alexa Fluor family of dyes, which are known for their superior photostability, brightness, and wide range of excitation/emission spectra. These properties make Alexa Fluor dyes, including Alexa Fluor 568, highly valuable in the field of fluorescence microscopy and cellular imaging.

Applications and Staining Properties

Alexa Fluor 568 is commonly used for staining a variety of biological samples, including cells and tissues. It is particularly useful in applications such as:

• Immunofluorescence
• Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH)
• Flow cytometry
• Super-resolution microscopy

Due to its high fluorescence intensity and photostability, Alexa Fluor 568 is an excellent choice for long-term imaging and experiments requiring precise localization of molecules within cells.

Target Binding

Alexa Fluor 568 can be conjugated to antibodies, peptides, proteins, and other molecules, allowing it to specifically bind to a wide range of targets within biological samples. This specificity is determined by the molecule to which Alexa Fluor 568 is conjugated, rather than the dye itself. For example, when conjugated to an antibody targeting a specific protein, Alexa Fluor 568 can be used to visualize the location and distribution of that protein within a cell.

Excitation and Emission

The excitation maximum of Alexa Fluor 568 is approximately 578 nm, and its emission maximum is around 603 nm, placing it in the red spectrum of visible light. This spectral property allows for multiplexing with other fluorophores that have different excitation/emission characteristics, enabling researchers to visualize multiple targets simultaneously within the same sample.

Advantages

• High photostability
• Intense brightness
• Wide range of excitation/emission spectra for multiplexing
• Low photobleaching rate

In summary, Alexa Fluor 568 is a versatile and powerful tool for the visualization of molecular and cellular processes, offering researchers the ability to obtain detailed, high-resolution images of biological samples.