A novel water‐soluble near‐infrared fluorescent probe for monitoring viscosity fluctuations in plants and zebrafish under abiotic stresses

Yixue Feng; Keke Ding; Yongxu Yang; Quanliang Liu; Silin Xu; Chunhui Liu; Zhihong Xu; Xufeng Hou; Jihong Huang; Tony D. James

doi:10.1002/smo2.70043

A novel water‐soluble near‐infrared fluorescent probe for monitoring viscosity fluctuations in plants and zebrafish under abiotic stresses

Yixue Feng
, Keke Ding
, Yongxu Yang
, Quanliang Liu
, Silin Xu
, Chunhui Liu
, Zhihong Xu
, Xufeng Hou
, Jihong Huang
, Tony D. James

Zhengzhou University
Xuchang University
Henan Normal University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Viscosity is one of the important microenvironmental parameters of abiotic stress. Abnormal changes in viscosity have been shown to be correlated with pathological activities and diseases of plants. However, current probes may not be suitable for sensing in plants due to their hydrophobicity and the phytochromes found in plants. With this research, we successfully constructed a structurally simple, water-soluble near-infrared fluorescent probe HJA-MQ-D, which can simultaneously monitor dynamic viscosity changes in plants and animal systems. The probe exhibits a relatively long emission wavelength (nearly 700 nm) and large Stokes shift (88 nm), and exceptional viscosity-responsive performances with 140-fold fluorescence intensity enhancement. More importantly, the HJA-MQ-D can image the viscosity fluctuation at the cellular level in plants (onion inner epidermis and mung bean sections) as well as at the whole-plant level (mung bean and peanut seedling). In addition, HJA-MQ-D was used to monitor the viscosity changes in a nystatin-induced zebrafish model. Based on these advanced characteristics, we anticipate that this probe will provide a powerful new tool for cross-species viscosity monitoring.

Original language	English
Article number	e70043
Journal	Smart Molecules
Early online date	19 Mar 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/smo2.70043
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 19 Mar 2026

Data Availability Statement

The data that supports the findings of this study are available in the supplementary material of this article.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22577112 and 22407116), the Key program for International Science and Technology Cooperation projects of Henan Province (261111520300), the Open Project Program of Collaborative Innovation Center of Functional Food by Green Manufacturing, Henan Province (2024XTKF021), and The Scientific Research Innovation Team of Xuchang University (2022CXTD001) for financial support. T.D.J. wishes to thank the University of Bath and the Open Research Fund of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan Normal University (2020ZD01) for support.

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@article{94c63ccc2dda46aca681e394b45e3e59,

title = "A novel water‐soluble near‐infrared fluorescent probe for monitoring viscosity fluctuations in plants and zebrafish under abiotic stresses",

abstract = "Viscosity is one of the important microenvironmental parameters of abiotic stress. Abnormal changes in viscosity have been shown to be correlated with pathological activities and diseases of plants. However, current probes may not be suitable for sensing in plants due to their hydrophobicity and the phytochromes found in plants. With this research, we successfully constructed a structurally simple, water-soluble near-infrared fluorescent probe HJA-MQ-D, which can simultaneously monitor dynamic viscosity changes in plants and animal systems. The probe exhibits a relatively long emission wavelength (nearly 700 nm) and large Stokes shift (88 nm), and exceptional viscosity-responsive performances with 140-fold fluorescence intensity enhancement. More importantly, the HJA-MQ-D can image the viscosity fluctuation at the cellular level in plants (onion inner epidermis and mung bean sections) as well as at the whole-plant level (mung bean and peanut seedling). In addition, HJA-MQ-D was used to monitor the viscosity changes in a nystatin-induced zebrafish model. Based on these advanced characteristics, we anticipate that this probe will provide a powerful new tool for cross-species viscosity monitoring. ",

author = "Yixue Feng and Keke Ding and Yongxu Yang and Quanliang Liu and Silin Xu and Chunhui Liu and Zhihong Xu and Xufeng Hou and Jihong Huang and James, \{Tony D.\}",

year = "2026",

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language = "English",

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T1 - A novel water‐soluble near‐infrared fluorescent probe for monitoring viscosity fluctuations in plants and zebrafish under abiotic stresses

AU - Feng, Yixue

AU - Ding, Keke

AU - Yang, Yongxu

AU - Liu, Quanliang

AU - Xu, Silin

AU - Liu, Chunhui

AU - Xu, Zhihong

AU - Hou, Xufeng

AU - Huang, Jihong

AU - James, Tony D.

PY - 2026/3/19

Y1 - 2026/3/19

N2 - Viscosity is one of the important microenvironmental parameters of abiotic stress. Abnormal changes in viscosity have been shown to be correlated with pathological activities and diseases of plants. However, current probes may not be suitable for sensing in plants due to their hydrophobicity and the phytochromes found in plants. With this research, we successfully constructed a structurally simple, water-soluble near-infrared fluorescent probe HJA-MQ-D, which can simultaneously monitor dynamic viscosity changes in plants and animal systems. The probe exhibits a relatively long emission wavelength (nearly 700 nm) and large Stokes shift (88 nm), and exceptional viscosity-responsive performances with 140-fold fluorescence intensity enhancement. More importantly, the HJA-MQ-D can image the viscosity fluctuation at the cellular level in plants (onion inner epidermis and mung bean sections) as well as at the whole-plant level (mung bean and peanut seedling). In addition, HJA-MQ-D was used to monitor the viscosity changes in a nystatin-induced zebrafish model. Based on these advanced characteristics, we anticipate that this probe will provide a powerful new tool for cross-species viscosity monitoring.

AB - Viscosity is one of the important microenvironmental parameters of abiotic stress. Abnormal changes in viscosity have been shown to be correlated with pathological activities and diseases of plants. However, current probes may not be suitable for sensing in plants due to their hydrophobicity and the phytochromes found in plants. With this research, we successfully constructed a structurally simple, water-soluble near-infrared fluorescent probe HJA-MQ-D, which can simultaneously monitor dynamic viscosity changes in plants and animal systems. The probe exhibits a relatively long emission wavelength (nearly 700 nm) and large Stokes shift (88 nm), and exceptional viscosity-responsive performances with 140-fold fluorescence intensity enhancement. More importantly, the HJA-MQ-D can image the viscosity fluctuation at the cellular level in plants (onion inner epidermis and mung bean sections) as well as at the whole-plant level (mung bean and peanut seedling). In addition, HJA-MQ-D was used to monitor the viscosity changes in a nystatin-induced zebrafish model. Based on these advanced characteristics, we anticipate that this probe will provide a powerful new tool for cross-species viscosity monitoring.

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JO - Smart Molecules

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ER -

A novel water‐soluble near‐infrared fluorescent probe for monitoring viscosity fluctuations in plants and zebrafish under abiotic stresses

Abstract

Data Availability Statement

Acknowledgements

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