With so many dyes attached to each 3DNA dendrimer, does quenching occur?
Quenching occurs when fluorescent dyes are close enough together that the energy that would be emitted as fluorescence from one dye is transferred to a neighboring dye molecule, instead of being emitted. The dyes on the arms of the dendrimer are separated by enough nucleotides that quenching is not observed in 3DNA dendrimers. We have verified this result by following the fluorescence of a fixed quantity of dye molecules before and after attachment to dendrimers. The fluorescence was maintained.
