A Fluorescent Sensor Array for the Discrimination of Nucleotide Phosphates

Chemosensors that can discriminate between nucleotide phosphates are difficult to prepare. Here we describe the use of a sensing array comprising metal complexes of bis(dipicolylamino)-functionalised linear peptide based fluorescent sensors for the discrimination of nucleotide phosphates. We demonstrate that through the rational incorporation of additional sensor elements the discriminatory power of the array can be improved. An array incorporating two peptides in combination with four metal ions was able to successfully discriminate all triphosphates and diphosphates tested. When monophosphates were included in the analysis, 91 % of the analytes (blank, AMP, ADP, ATP, CMP, CDP, CTP, GMP, GDP, GTP, UMP, UDP and UTP) could be correctly classified, with all classification errors related to monophosphates.