Water soluble hybrid phthalocyanine derivatives useful in competitive and
noncompetitive assays immunoassays, nucleic acid and assays are disclosed
and claimed having (1) at least one donor subunit with a desired
excitation peak; and (2) at least one acceptor subunit with a desired
emission peak, wherein said derivative(s) is/are capable of
intramolecular energy transfer from said donor subunit to said acceptor
subunit. Such derivatives also may contain an electron transfer subunit.
Axial ligands may be covalently bound to the metals contained in the
water soluble hybrid phthalocyanine derivatives. Ligands, ligand
analogues, polypeptides, proteins and nucleic acids can be linked to the
axial ligands of the dyes to form dye conjugates useful in immunoassays
and nucleic acid assays.