BBQ®-650 (Figure 1) stands for BlackBerry Quencher 650 and it is a dark quencher, often used in dual-labelled probes. As a dark quencher, BBQ®-650 absorbs energy without emitting fluorescence, thus it has low background fluorescence. It is in fact a non-fluorescent chromophore.
Due to its wide absorption range, with a maximum of 650 nm, it is optimal for long wavelength dyes. In addition, BBQ-650 is the quencher of choice for longer oligos (>50 bases) due to its resistance to either oligonucleotide synthesis reactants (including iodine or TCA) or deblocking solutions (such as ammonia or AMA).
Figure 1. Structure of 5'-BBQ®-650 (R = sequence).
metabion offers BBQ®-650 in its DNA and RNA dual-labelled probes portfolio: