metabion Black Quenchers: MBQ-1 and MBQ-2

MBQ-1 and MBQ-2 stand for metabion Black Quencher 1 and metabion Black Quencher 2.

MBQ-modifications consist of dark quenchers often used in dual-labelled probes for real-time PCR and are structurally identical to their respective BHQ-counterparts.

Dark Quenchers absorb energy without emitting fluorescence. They are in fact non-fluorescent chromophores.


The MBQ-1 (Figure 1) dark quencher exhibits strong absorption between 480 nm and 580 nm, making it highly effective at quenching fluorophores that fluoresce within this range, such as 6-Fam, TET, JOE, HEX, or a variety of Atto dyes.


Figure 1. Structure of 3'-MBQ-1.


The absorbance spectra of MBQ-1 is identical to the absorbance spectra of BHQ-1 (Figure 2), which indicates that also the quenching range is identical.

For more details, please refer to our Dual-Labelled Probes (DLPs) and the corresponding Reporter-Quencher combination table.

MBQ-1 can quench fluorescence through both FRET and static quenching mechanisms.


Figure 2. Absorbance spectra of MBQ-1- and BHQ-1-labelled oligonucleotides. As visible, the absorbance max of MBQ-1 is 534 nm, exactly as its counterpart BHQ-1.


The MBQ-2 (Figure 3) dark quencher exhibits strong absorption between 550 nm and 650 nm, making it highly effective at quenching fluorophores that fluoresce within this range, such as Tamra, ROX, or a variety of Atto dyes.



Figure 3. Structure of 3'-MBQ-2.


The absorbance spectra of MBQ-2 is identical to the absorbance spectra of BHQ-2 (Figure 4), which indicates that also the quenching range is identical.

For more details, please refer to our Dual-Labelled Probes (DLPs) and the corresponding Reporter-Quencher combination table.

MBQ-2 can quench fluorescence through both FRET and static quenching mechanisms.


Figure 4. Absorbance spectra of MBQ-2- and BHQ-2-labelled oligonucleotides. As visible, the absorbance max of MBQ-2 is 579 nm, exactly as its counterpart BHQ-2.


metabion offers MBQ-1 and MBQ-2 at 3' in its DNA and RNA dual-labelled probes portfolio:

For more information, please visit our Portfolio. To place an order, click here.