Whole-mount Clearing and Staining of Arabidopsis Flower Organs and Siliques

Summary

In this protocol, we describe techniques for the proper dissection of Arabidopsis flowers and siliques, some basic clearing techniques, and selected staining procedures for whole-mount observations of reproductive structures.

Abstract

Due to its formidable tools for molecular genetic studies, Arabidopsis thaliana is one of the most prominent model species in plant biology and, especially, in plant reproductive biology. However, plant morphological, anatomical, and ultrastructural analyses traditionally involve time-consuming embedding and sectioning procedures for bright field, scanning, and electron microscopy. Recent progress in confocal fluorescence microscopy, state-of-the-art 3-D computer-aided microscopic analyses, and the continuous refinement of molecular techniques to be used on minimally processed whole-mount specimens, has led to an increased demand for developing efficient and minimal sample processing techniques. In this protocol, we describe techniques for properly dissecting Arabidopsis flowers and siliques, basic clearing techniques, and some staining procedures for whole-mount observations of reproductive structures.

Introduction

Flowers are among the most important defining organs of angiosperms. Flowering plants appeared some 90–130 million years ago¹, and diversified so fast that their rapid appearance was described as an "abominable mystery" by Charles Darwin². The interests of plant researchers in flower development are diverse. Some research has focused on understanding the evolutionary origin of the flower as a whole, or the evolution of specific anatomical, structural, and functional properties of flowers^3,4,5,

Protocol

1. Flower and Silique Fixation

1. Harvest flowers and siliques from plants synchronized at the opening of the first flower.
   NOTE: Under the experimental conditions used here, plants start flowering approximately 21 days after transplantation from Murashige and Skoog (MS) plates to soil. Seeds are stratified for 3–4 days at 4 °C and germinated/grown on MS plates at 22 °C/16 h light and 18 °C/8 h dark for 8 to 10 days, before transplanting the seedlings on nutrient-rich soil in pots kept under the same conditions (Figure 1). The number of replicates depends on the specific research objective, but a minim....

Results

Arabidopsis belongs to the Brassicacea family, bearing inflorescences with bisexual flowers arranged in a corymb (Figure 1). Each flower has four sepals, four petals, six stamens (four long and two short), and a syncarpous gynoecium consisting of two congenitally fused carpels (Figure 1F-H) arranged in four concentric whorls^25,26. Arabidopsis.......

Discussion

The existence of many flower buds within a single inflorescence of Arabidopsis, spanning all flower developmental stages, offers a unique opportunity for studies aimed at characterizing an effect of a treatment or a developmental feature simultaneously across the different stages of flower development. A good reference point between different individual plants is the opening of the first flower of the main inflorescence. Plants are treated in such a way that flowering is synchronized as much as possible (e.g.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Reagents and Materials
Ethanol	Scharlau	ET00102500
Acetic Acid	Applichem	A3686,2500	100% Molecular biology grade
Glacial Acetic Acid	Sigma-Aldrich	320099	Molecular Biology Grade
Methanol	Scharlau	ME03062500
Formaldehyde Solution	Sigma-Aldrich	F1635
Propionic acid	Sigma-Aldrich	81910-250 ml
Chloral hydrate	Sigma-Aldrich	15307
Glycerol	Roth	3783.1
Gum arabic	Fluka	51198
Lactic acid	Fluka	69773
Phenol	Sigma-Aldrich	77607-250ML	We used liquid phenol (use the density to find the required volume for your solution)
Clove oil	Sigma-Aldrich	C8392-100ML
Xylene	Roth	4436.1
Iodine	Fluka	57665
Potassium iodide	Merck	5043
Malachite Green	Fluka	63160
Fuchsin acid	Fluka	84600
Orange G	Sigma	7252
Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate	Sigma-Aldrich	L3771	Molecular Biology Grade
Sodium hydroxide	Sigma-Aldrich	71690
Sodium di-Hydrogen Phosphate	Applichem	A1047,1000
Sodium phosphate dibasic	Sigma-Aldrich	S9763-1KG
Potassium phosphate	Sigma-Aldrich	04347
EDTA	Applichem	A2937,1000
Calcofluor	Sigma	F6259	Fluorescent brightener 28
Auramine	Chroma	10120
DAPI	Sigma	D9542	toxic
Triton-X-100	Sigma	T8787
Aniline blue	Merck	1275
MS medium	Carolina	19-57030
Nutrient-rich substrate	Einheitserde	ED73
Watch maker's glass			No specific brand
15 ml falcon centrifuge tubes	VWR	62406-200
Dumond Forceps	Actimed	0208-5SPSF-PS
Forceps	DUMONT BIOLOGY	0108-5
Syringe	BD	BD Plastipak 300013	1 ml
Preparation needle	BD	BD Microlance 304000
Microscope slides	Thermo Scientific	10143562CE	cut edges
Coverslips	Thermo Scientific	DV40008
Humid box			A plastic box with damp paper towel and slide supports inside
Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Solutions
Fixatives
Carnoy's (Farmer's) fixative			Absolute ethanol : glacial acetic acid, 3:1 (ml:ml)
Methanol/acetic acid fixative			50 % (v/v) methanol, 10 % (v/v) glacial acetic acid in deionized water
FPA50 fixative			Formalin, propionic acid, 50% ethanol; 5:5:90 (ml:ml:ml)
Clearing solutions
Chloral hydrate/glycerol			Chloral hydrate : glycerol : water, 8:1:2 (g:ml:ml). Can be used for all flower developmental stages and for silique development with DIC microscopy. The best fixative is the formaline based FPA50
Modified Hoyer			Gum arabic 7.5 g, chloral hydrate 100 g, glycerol 5 ml , water 30 ml. Can be used for all flower developmental stages and for silique development with DIC microscopy. The best fixative is the formaline based FPA50
Herr's 4½ clearing fluid			Lactic acid, chloral hydrate, phenol crystals, clove oil, xylene; 2:2:2:2:1, by weight. Can be used for all flower developmental stages (especially for stamen development) and for silique development with DIC microscopy. The best fixative is the formaline based FPA50
SDS/NaOH solution			Mix-dilute the the SDS and the NaOH stock solution to 1% SDS / 0.2 N NaOH (10x dilution). For all stages of flower and silique developmental stages. The best fixative is the methano/acetic acid fixative; the other two fixatives can also be used. Can be combined with calcofluor, auramine, DAPI, and aniline blue staining solution.
SDS stock solution			10 % (w/v) sodium dodecyl sulphate. Dissolve 10 g sodium dodecyl sulphate in 80 ml deionized water and make up to 100 ml with deionized water.
NaOH stock solution			2 N NaOH solution: dissolve 4 g of NaOH in 40 ml of deionized water and make up to 100 ml with deionized water
Combined clearing and staining solutions
Herr's IKI-4½			To a standard 4½ (9 g in total) add: 100 mg iodine, 500 mg potassium iodide. This clearing solution can be used for all flower developmental stages and for silique development, either for increasing contrast or for characterizing starch dynamics. Use FPA50 for structural analysis and Carnoy's fixative for quantitative starch analysis.
Alexander staining			Ethanol 95% 10ml, malachite green (1% in 95% EtOH) 1 ml, fuchsin acid (1% in ddH2O) 5ml, orange G (1% in ddH2O) 0.5ml, phenol 5g, chloral hydrate 5g, glacial acetic acid 2ml, glycerol 25ml . This clearing/staining alone or in combination with Herr's 4½ solution can be used to evaluate pollen abortion in flowers with mature and tricellular pollen grains. It's used on freshly harved non-fixed material.
Staining solutions
Calcofluor solution			Calcofluor 0.007% in water (g:ml). Originally used as an optical brightner. Can be used for staining cellulose, carboxylated polysaccharides and callose in cell walls. Frequently used to stain the intine of the pollen grain. All three fixatives can be used with this solution.
Auramine solution			Auramine 0.01% in water (g:ml). This lipophilic fluorscent dye can be used for staining cuticles, cutin, and exine among others. All three fixatives can be used with this solution
Calcofluor-Auramine mixture			Auramine solution : Calcofluor solution, 3:1. Can be used for a combined staining by both solutions. Other proportions can be assayed maintaining a smaller proportion of calcofluor with respect to auramine.
DAPI solution			DAPI 0.4 ug/ml, 0.1 M sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7), 0.1% Triton-X-100, 1 mM EDTA. This solution can be used for staining chromosome spreads during male and female meiosis, and cell nuclei of any tissue. Frequently used for studying pollen grain development. Carnoy's and methanol/ acetic acid are the best fixatives for this solution. Formaldehyde-based fixatives such as FPA50 may interfere with the staining. Excitation in the UV and maximum emission around 461 nm.
Sodium phosphate buffer (0.1 M)			Proton receptor: 0.2 M Na2HPO4, proton donor: 0.2 M NaH2PO4, ratio proton donor / proton receptor: 1.364 ( for a pH 7)
Aniline blue solution			0.1% (w/v) aniline blue, 108 mM K3PO4 (pH 11), 2% glycerol. This solution can be used for staining callose and cellulose of many stages of development (e.g callose deposition in male and female terads, callose plugs in pollen tubes). Excitation in the UV and maximum emission around 455. It can also be excited at 514 nm with emission in the red for cell content staining.