The influence of nano golds on fluorescence properties of sectorial Polyamidoamine dendrimers (G4 s-PAMAM) was investigated in this paper. It was found that gold nanoparticles (GNPs) with definite surface plasmon absorption can quench the fluorescence of G4 s-PAMAM dendrimers. With the increasing of the concentration of GNPs, the fluorescence intensity of G4 s-PAMAM decreased correspondingly, and varied linearly at low concentration of GNPs. This phenomenon was owing to the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between the dendrimers and GNPs. In contrast, the complex with smaller gold nanodots (GNDs) encapsulated in the interior of the G4 s-PAMAM presented greatly enhanced emission. Those results show that the size of nano golds may be used to adjust the fluorescence properties of sectorial PAMAM dendrimers and may extend potential applications of PAMAM dendrimers and nano golds. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.