Molecular beacons are DNA probes that form a stem-and-loop structure and possess an internally quenched fluorophore. When they bind to complementary nucleic acids, they undergo a conformational transition that switches on their fluorescence. These probes recognize their targets with higher specificity than probes that cannot form a hairpin stem, and they easily discriminate targets that differ from one another by only a single nucleotide. Our results show that molecular beacons can exist in three different states: bound to a target, free in the form of a hairpin structure, and free in the form of a random coil. Thermodynamic analysis of the transitions between these states reveals that enhanced specificity is a general feature of conformationally constrained probes.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 12. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 07 July 2026.
All research outputs
#3,778,550
of 34,361,833 outputs
Outputs from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#38,975
of 118,929 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#3,825
of 53,145 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#90
of 554 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,361,833 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 88th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 118,929 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 40.1. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 64% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 53,145 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 554 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 77% of its contemporaries.
