Imaging of formaldehyde in plants with a ratiometric fluorescent probe

The fluorescence monitoring of formaldehyde in real environmental samples and live plant tissues is of great importance for physiological and pathological studies. However, there is a lack of suitable chemical tools to directly trace and measure the formaldehyde activity in bio-systems, and developing effective and, in particular, selective sensors for mapping formaldehyde in live tissues still remains a great challenge. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that the ratiometric fluorescence monitoring of formaldehyde in live plant tissues is achieved with a newly developed ratiometric fluorescent probe,