This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Data All Versions of this Article: 20/6/1494    most recent tpc.107.056069v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in Plant Cell Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Google Scholar Articles by Truernit, E. Articles by Palauqui, J.-C. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Truernit, E. Articles by Palauqui, J.-C. Agricola Articles by Truernit, E. Articles by Palauqui, J.-C.

High-Resolution Whole-Mount Imaging of Three-Dimensional Tissue Organization and Gene Expression Enables the Study of Phloem Development and Structure in Arabidopsis^[W]

^a Laboratoire de Biologie Cellulaire, Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin, Unité de Recherche 501, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, 78026 Versailles cedex, France
^b Laboratoire de Biologie des Semences, Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin, Unité Mixte de Recherche 204, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique/AgroParistech, 78026 Versailles cedex, France
^c Laboratoire Commun de Cytologie, Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin, Unité de Recherche 254, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, 78026 Versailles cedex, France
^d Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EA, United Kingdom

³ Address correspondence to palauqui{at}versailles.inra.fr.

Currently, examination of the cellular structure of plant organs and the gene expression therein largely relies on the production of tissue sections. Here, we present a staining technique that can be used to image entire plant organs using confocal laser scanning microscopy. This technique produces high-resolution images that allow three-dimensional reconstruction of the cellular organization of plant organs. Importantly, three-dimensional domains of gene expression can be analyzed with single-cell precision. We used this technique for a detailed examination of phloem cells in the wild type and mutants. We were also able to recognize phloem sieve elements and their differentiation state in any tissue type and visualize the structure of sieve plates. We show that in the altered phloem development mutant, a hybrid cell type with phloem and xylem characteristics develops from initially normally differentiated protophloem cells. The simplicity of sieve element data collection allows for the statistical analysis of structural parameters of sieve plates, essential for the calculation of phloem conductivity. Taken together, this technique significantly improves the speed and accuracy of the investigation of plant growth and development.

Related articles in Plant Cell:

High-Resolution Three-Dimensional Imaging of Plant Tissues

Nancy A. Eckardt
Plant Cell 2008 20: 1423. [Full Text]