acridine orange

acridine orange

[′ak·rə‚dēn ′är·inj]

(organic chemistry)

A dye with an affinity for nucleic acids; the complexes of nucleic acid and dye fluoresce orange with RNA and green with DNA when observed in the fluorescence microscope.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.