A UV-triggered water-soluble H2S donor for visual delivery of H2S in organisms and its application in plant protection

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) serves as an important signaling molecule with important physiological functions in living organisms. Despite the current achievements in developing H2S donors, the development of controllable donors and visualization of H2S delivery within cells remains a challenge. In this paper, a new UV-light triggered H2S donor (UV-HS) was developed based on thiocarbamate. UV-HS triggered by UV light is accompanied by the release of carbonyl sulfur (COS) along with the release of compounds with fluorescence, which well aids in the visual delivery of H2S by the donor in the organism. The donor has high selectivity, high sensitivity and low cytotoxicity, enabling visual delivery of H2S within cells and zebrafish. In addition, UV-HS showed good resistance to heavy metal ion stress in arabidopsis. The present work provides new ideas for exogenous H2S supplementation in organisms and contributes to the in-depth study of H2S donors in organisms.