Chapter 13
Live Imaging of Arabidopsis Leaf and Vegetative Meristem
Development
Monica Pia Caggiano, Xiulian Yu, Carolyn Ohno, Pia Sappl,
and Marcus G. Heisler
Abstract
Plants develop lateral organs such as leaves and flowers throughout their post-embryonic life from a
structure called the shoot apical meristem (SAM), located at the plant shoot apex. This process is highly
dynamic, and therefore in order to understand meristem and organ development, it is critical to be able to
analyze these processes with high temporal and spatial resolution. Although several protocols have been
published for imaging the Arabidopsis inflorescence meristem, gaining access to the vegetative meristem for
imaging has been considered more difficult. Here we describe a method to dissect young Arabidopsis
seedlings in order to obtain a clear view of the vegetative meristem and young leaf primordia using confocal
microscopy.
Key words Confocal, Microscopy, Arabidopsis, Live-imaging, Leaves, Vegetative meristem
1 Introduction
Development is a dynamic process that includes cell proliferation,
cell differentiation, and morphogenesis. To understand development it is therefore necessary to assess these features with high
temporal and spatial resolution. Such an approach has become
more common through the use of confocal microscopes and a
variety of fluorescent proteins and stains available for marking
gene expression, protein localization, or other cellular components.
Imaging data can also be analyzed using image segmentation and
computational modeling to enable the quantification of tissue or
cellular behavior [1]. Finally, this approach can also be combined
with precise perturbation experiments and also enables causal relationships to be ascertained [2].
In contrast to animals, plants develop lateral organs such as
leaves and flowers continuously during their post-embryonic life,
providing a good opportunity to investigate the development of
these structures. In the model species Arabidopsis thaliana, leaves
Jose J. Sanchez-Serrano and Julio Salinas (eds.), Arabidopsis Protocols, Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 2200,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0880-7_13, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021
295
Live Imaging of Arabidopsis Leaf and Vegetative Meristem
Development
Monica Pia Caggiano, Xiulian Yu, Carolyn Ohno, Pia Sappl,
and Marcus G. Heisler
Abstract
Plants develop lateral organs such as leaves and flowers throughout their post-embryonic life from a
structure called the shoot apical meristem (SAM), located at the plant shoot apex. This process is highly
dynamic, and therefore in order to understand meristem and organ development, it is critical to be able to
analyze these processes with high temporal and spatial resolution. Although several protocols have been
published for imaging the Arabidopsis inflorescence meristem, gaining access to the vegetative meristem for
imaging has been considered more difficult. Here we describe a method to dissect young Arabidopsis
seedlings in order to obtain a clear view of the vegetative meristem and young leaf primordia using confocal
microscopy.
Key words Confocal, Microscopy, Arabidopsis, Live-imaging, Leaves, Vegetative meristem
1 Introduction
Development is a dynamic process that includes cell proliferation,
cell differentiation, and morphogenesis. To understand development it is therefore necessary to assess these features with high
temporal and spatial resolution. Such an approach has become
more common through the use of confocal microscopes and a
variety of fluorescent proteins and stains available for marking
gene expression, protein localization, or other cellular components.
Imaging data can also be analyzed using image segmentation and
computational modeling to enable the quantification of tissue or
cellular behavior [1]. Finally, this approach can also be combined
with precise perturbation experiments and also enables causal relationships to be ascertained [2].
In contrast to animals, plants develop lateral organs such as
leaves and flowers continuously during their post-embryonic life,
providing a good opportunity to investigate the development of
these structures. In the model species Arabidopsis thaliana, leaves
Jose J. Sanchez-Serrano and Julio Salinas (eds.), Arabidopsis Protocols, Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 2200,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0880-7_13, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021
295