Development of 1,8-naphthalimide dyes for rapid imaging of subcellular compartments in plants

Here, we report the installation of 1,8-naphthalimide dyes in live cell imaging of plants. We developed a series of 1,8-naphthalimide-based probes that illuminate different subcellular compartments by altering their spectral characteristics. Simple infiltration of the probes into leaves rapidly visualized the structure of chloroplasts or the vacuole. We further demonstrated that these probes are applicable to monitor the organelle behaviors in an autophagy pathway.