Acridine orange is a metachromatic fluorescent cationic dye .Acridine orange intercalates into the nucleic acids of double helix and is detectable as green fluorescence at 530 nm.
Acridine orange is a metachromatic fluorescent cationic dye that permeates the cell membrane and intercalates DNA and RNA. It allows for visual detection of nucleic acids on agarose and polyacrylamide gels.