Chemoselective Attachment of the Water-Soluble Dark Quencher Hydrodabcyl to Amino Groups in Peptides and Preservation of Its Spectroscopic Properties over a Wide pH Range

The water-soluble quencher hydrodabcyl can be activated as an N-succinimidyl ester that is readily accessible from crude hydrodabcyl and storable for a long time. With primary and secondary amines, it reacts swiftly and chemoselectively, even in the presence of other competing nucleophiles such as those typically present in natural peptides. One of the three phenolic OH groups of hydrodabcyl is amenable to selective mono-Boc protection resulting in reduced polarity, advantageous to its further use in organic synthesis. The advantages of hydrodabcyl over dabcyl in spectrometric applications are exemplified by the pH dependence of its absorbance spectra.