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Singlet oxygen is known to be produced by cells in response to photo-oxidative stresses and wounding. Due to singlet oxygen being highly reactive, it is thought to have a very short half-life in biological systems and, consequently, it is difficult to detect. A new commercially available reagent (singlet oxygen sensor green, SOSG), which is highly selective for singlet oxygen, was applied to a range of biological systems that are known to generate singlet oxygen. Induction of singlet oxygen production by the addition of myoglobin to liposome preparations demonstrated that the singlet oxygen-induced increases in SOSG fluorescence closely followed the increase in the concentration of conjugated dienes, which is stoichiometrically related to singlet oxygen production. Applications of photo-oxidative stresses to diatom species and leaves, which are known to result in the production of singlet oxygen, produced large …