10127-02-3

brown powder

Fluorescent stain for nucleic acids. An RNA polymerase inhibitorAcridine Orange acts as a lysosomal dye. It is used for cell-cycle studies. It plays an important role as a nucleic acid-selective fluorescent cationic dye, which is useful for cell cycle determination. Further, it serves as an inhibitor of RNA polymerase.

Acridine orange (AO) is a fluorescent dye with two different staining characteristics. In fixed tissues, it acts as a metachromatic dye and differentially stains DNA (green) and RNA (orange). But, in living cells it acts as a pH indicator and produce brilliant orange-red in acidic condition. AO has been used to identify apoptotic cells in drosophila embryos. Acridine Orange staining method has been used to deliver more consistent data in the micronucleus test.