High Resolution Quantification of Crystalline Cellulose Accumulation in Arabidopsis Roots to Monitor Tissue-specific Cell Wall Modifications

The overall goal of this anatomical cross section preparation is to quantify relative crystal and cellulose accumulation at the cellular resolution enabling direct comparisons between the different tissues in the primary Arabidopsis Root. This method can help answer key questions in the plant physiology and development field such as how cellular composition of a given cell type impinges on a whole organs growth. After sterilizing Arabidopsis seed according to the text protocol, spread the sterile seeds on plates containing 0.8%plant agar and 0.5XM medium.

With parafilm wrap the plates and cover with aluminum foil. Store the plates at 4 degrees Celsius for one to four days to promote uniform germination. Then transfer the plates to a growth chamber suitable for growing Arabidopsis seedlings orienting the plates vertically to maintain root growth on top of the agar medium Prepare Richardson's solution according to the text protocol Filter through a syringe driven 0.22 micron PVD filter unit before use.

Next under a chemical hood prepare 50 milliliters of fixative by combining 38 ml of 0.5M sodium cacodylate with 2.5 ml of glutaraldehyde. Then add 100 microliters of Richardson's solution to the fixation solution to generate the final fixation solution. Use a pre-marked plate, then place 2 to 3 ml of final fixation solution into the wells so that the solution will fully cover the seedlings.

Using plastic forceps carefully transfer up to 10 seedlings to each well. Use parafilm to seal the plates before storing in the dark at 4 degrees Celsius for at least one night and up to one week. To dehydrate the fixed seedlings use forceps to pick up the plants by their an transfer them to the wells of new marked six well plates containing increasing concentrations of ethanol for the times listed here.

Prepare infiltration medium in a small glass bottle by mixing the contents of one bag of Historesin Activator with 50ml of basic resin liquid. Insert a magnet and stir the solution on stir plate for 20 minutes. Fill the labeled wells of a six well plate with 2 to 3 ml of infiltration medium.

Then when the seedlings are fully dehydrated use forceps to transfer them from the 95%ethanol solution to the infiltration medium ensuring that they are fully covered by the medium. Store the samples at 4 degrees Celsius for at least four days to ensure maximum penetration into the plant tissues. To prepare blocks place small labels pencil marked with the sample name inside each well embedding molds.

Prepare embedding medium by adding 1ml of hardener to 15ml of infiltration medium. With about 200 microliters of embedding medium fill half of each well in the mold. And use an overhead piece of film to cover the mold with an extra 1ml on each side.

Incubate the molds at room temperature for at least two hours to allow partial polymerization. Next, prepare an additional batch of embedding medium and keep it on nice to avoid polymerization while root tips are being arranged in the mold. Add embedding medium into a small plate and place one seedling in a medium.

Under a dissecting scope use a scalpel to cut each root tip then very carefully position it in the mold about 2 to 3 mm away from the mold periphery either vertically for transfer sections or horizontally for longitudinal sections. After arranging the tissue use embedding medium to fill the mold completely, and cover with an overhead film. Then incubate at room temperature for a minimum of two hours To dry the blocks place them in a desiccator with dry silica gel and leave at room temperature overnight.

Using a knife maker equipped with a diamond scoring tool prepare glass knives from glass rods, by cutting the glass road into a square and then cutting the square diagonally to produce two knives. Verify that both knives have sharp edges. Mount a block into a holder.

Then with a single edge industrial blade remove the excess block material up to one mm from the root tip to obtain a pyramid shape. Section the shaped block into 2 to 3 micron width slices and transfer the slices to a marked glass slide. Then add water droplets on the slices.

It is important to prepare sections that are uniform in width to minimize variability of analyzed data. Place the glass slides on the heat blocks set to low heat until the water evaporates. To prepare slides for viewing under a polarized microscope dilute Richardson's solution to 2%of the original solution and use about 1ml to cover the slices.

Then place the samples on the heat block for 5 seconds and use distilled water to wash them. After drying the slides on the hot plate observe the slices under a dissecting microscope and use a marker to mark the back of a slide to indicate the position of the slices of interest. Add 100 microliters of mounting medium before covering with the cover slip.

Image and analyze according to the text protocol. Shown here is a cross section of the Arabidopsis primary root with radial organization of its constituent cells and tissues including non-hair cells, hair cells and cortex. This confocal image shows BRI1-GFP expression in non-hair cells in a BRI1 mutant background which inhibits the unidirectional expansion of neighboring cells and whole root growth.

As seen here longitudinal sections of the roots obtained from wild type and from lines expressing BRI1 in non-hair cells displayed a similar orientation of cellulose microfibrils with a high variability of angles present in meristematic cells as compared to cells in the transition zone. This enables comparison of relative accumulation of crystal in cellulose in the corresponding meristematic and elongating cells of the two genetic backgrounds as show here in cross sections and reveals a correlation between BRI1 expression in non-hair cells and high local accumulation of crystal in cellulose. Generally in the videos new to this method will struggle because it is challenging to obtain well oriented roots during the embedding procedure.

Therefore several blocks should be prepared for sectioning. Once mastered, a single block section can be done in 2 to 3 hours. While attempting this procedure it is important to remember that the accumulation of crystal in cellulose is comparable among cells if they have similar orientation of its cellulose microfibrils, as determined by the longitudinal sections.

After watching this video you should have a good understanding of how to fix Arabidopsis seedlings and how embed them in blocks and how to then prepare longitudinal and transverse root cross sections. You should also have a good insight into the data that can be obtained from using polarized light microscopy.