Molecule fluorescent probes for sensing and imaging analytes in plants: Developments and challenges

Plants are active contributors to the betterment of human living conditions and play a critical role in ecological systems. During the process of plant growth and development, several species such as ROS, RSS, signaling molecules, and metal ions can act as important pathogens. Additionally, heavy metal ions and pollutants can accumulate in the human body and become harmful through the food chain, making it essential to study how the distribution and amount of chemicals in plants change. Molecular fluorescent probes are powerful tools that offer high sensitivity, selectivity, reproducibility and membrane permeability, real-time in situ detection, and straightforward mechanism elucidation, and are widely used in plant imaging. This review presents a comprehensive overview of the progress in molecular fluorescent probes for sensing and imaging analytes in plants. Furthermore, future perspectives and potential applications of these fluorescent probes in plants are suggested. We believe that this review provides important insights that could inspire the development of probes with improved responsiveness for plant imaging.