3-D Time-Lapse Imaging of Cell Wall Dynamics Using Calcofluor in the Moss Physcomitrium patens

Summary

This manuscript presents a detailed protocol to image the 3-D cell wall dynamics of living moss tissue, allowing the visualization of the detachment of cell walls in ggb mutants and thickening cell wall patterns in the wild type during development over a long period.

Abstract

Time-lapse imaging with fluorescence microscopy allows observation of the dynamic changes of growth and development at cellular and subcellular levels. In general, for observations over a long period, the technique requires transformation of a fluorescent protein; however, for most systems, genetic transformation is either time-consuming or technically unavailable. This manuscript presents a protocol for 3-D time-lapse imaging of cell wall dynamics over a 3 day period using calcofluor dye (which stains cellulose in the plant cell wall), developed in the moss Physcomitrium patens. The calcofluor dye signal from the cell wall is stable and can last for 1 week without obvious decay. Using this method, it has been shown that the detachment of cells in ggb mutants (in which the protein geranylgeranyltransferase-I beta subunit is knocked out) is caused by unregulated cell expansion and cell wall integrity defects. Moreover, the patterns of calcofluor staining change over time; less intensely stained regions correlate with the future cell expansion/branching sites in the wild type. This method can be applied to many other systems that contain cell walls and that can be stained by calcofluor.

Introduction

Plant cell walls undergo dynamic changes during cell expansion and development^1,2,3. Maintaining cell wall integrity is critical for plant cell adhesion during growth and development, as well as for the response to environmental signals. Although visualizing cell wall dynamics of living cells over a long period of time is critical to understanding how cell adhesion is maintained during development and adaptation to environmental changes, current methods for directly observing cell wall dynamics are still challenging.

Time-lapse imaging of cellular ....

Protocol

NOTE: See the Table of Materials for the list of materials and equipment and Table 1 for the list of solutions to be used in this protocol.

1. Preparation of plants for glass bottom dishes

1. Grow the moss protonemal tissue in BCDAT agar medium in a 13 cm Petri dish under constant white light (~50 µmol m^-2s^-1) for 7 days at 25 °C in the growth chamber.
2. Filter-sterilize the calcofluor white and.......

Discussion

Time-lapse 3-D reconstruction, or 4-D imaging, is a powerful tool for observing the dynamics of cellular morphology during developmental processes. In this protocol, by mixing the calcofluor white in the medium, the dynamics of 3-D cellular morphology can be observed in the moss P. patens. Using this method, we observed that the surface of cell walls in ggb mutants are torn apart during development³. Moreover, the reduced thickening of cell walls is correlated with the cell expan.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
3-mm-thick red plastic light filter	Mitsubishi	no.102
27 mm diameter glass base dish	Iwaki	3930-035
Agar	Sigma	A6924
Calcofluor white	Sigma	18909-100ML-F	Calcofluor White M2R, 1 g/L and Evans blue, 0.5 g/L
Confocal microscope	Nikon	A1	NIS element software; .nd2 file in NIS-elements Viewer, download from https://www.microscope.healthcare.nikon. com/en_AOM/products/software/nis-elements/viewer
Fluorescence microscope	Nikon	TE200	Equipped with a DS-U3 camera;
Gellan gum	Nacali Tesque	12389-96
Plant Growth Chambers	SANYO	Sanyo MLR-350H
Sterilized syringe 0.22 μm filter	Millipore	SLGV033RS