Arabidopsis cell wall mutants
INTRODUCTION & AIMS
Plant cell walls are highly dynamic structure which is made up of polysaccharide such as cellulose. In plant cell, cellulose is synthesised at the plasma membrane by the enzyme cellulose synthase (CesA) which forms rosette structure with 18 CesA proteins in total. Mutating any of these CesA proteins is thought to interfere with the normal production of cellulose in plant. As cellulose is an important component of cell wall and is essential for plant growth, the expression of cellulose mutant phenotype need to be switch on after the plant has grown for some time in order to study the effect of the mutation. In this experiment, the temperature-sensitive mutant, radial swelling-1 mutation (rsw1) …show more content…
Observation of the roots under light microscopy
The roots of both Col and rsw1 plants of Arabidopsis at permissive (21°C) and non-permissive temperatures (31°C) were observed under light microscope by staining with different stains which were Toluidine Blue, Ruthenium Red and Calcofluor White. The results are shown below.
i. Toluidine Blue Stain Figure 2| Root tip of Col plant at permissive temperature (21°C) stained with Toluidine Blue under light microscope with magnification 4X. The width of the root tip is approximately 0.14 mm.
In figure 2, the root cap region is stained with light blue-green colour, the zone of cell division is stained with dark purple colour and the zone of cell differentiation is stained with purple colour. There are six parts of root hair observed in the figure. There are several elongated cells at the zone of cell elongation and zone of cell differentiation. The width of the root tip is consistent from the top of the picture towards the root cap which it then forms smooth vertex at the end. The root tip is straight in shape.
Figure 3| Root tip of Col plant at non-permissive temperature (31°C) stained with Toluidine Blue under light microscope with magnification 10X. The width of the root tip is approximately 0.14
INTRODUCTION & AIMS
Plant cell walls are highly dynamic structure which is made up of polysaccharide such as cellulose. In plant cell, cellulose is synthesised at the plasma membrane by the enzyme cellulose synthase (CesA) which forms rosette structure with 18 CesA proteins in total. Mutating any of these CesA proteins is thought to interfere with the normal production of cellulose in plant. As cellulose is an important component of cell wall and is essential for plant growth, the expression of cellulose mutant phenotype need to be switch on after the plant has grown for some time in order to study the effect of the mutation. In this experiment, the temperature-sensitive mutant, radial swelling-1 mutation (rsw1) …show more content…
Observation of the roots under light microscopy
The roots of both Col and rsw1 plants of Arabidopsis at permissive (21°C) and non-permissive temperatures (31°C) were observed under light microscope by staining with different stains which were Toluidine Blue, Ruthenium Red and Calcofluor White. The results are shown below.
i. Toluidine Blue Stain Figure 2| Root tip of Col plant at permissive temperature (21°C) stained with Toluidine Blue under light microscope with magnification 4X. The width of the root tip is approximately 0.14 mm.
In figure 2, the root cap region is stained with light blue-green colour, the zone of cell division is stained with dark purple colour and the zone of cell differentiation is stained with purple colour. There are six parts of root hair observed in the figure. There are several elongated cells at the zone of cell elongation and zone of cell differentiation. The width of the root tip is consistent from the top of the picture towards the root cap which it then forms smooth vertex at the end. The root tip is straight in shape.
Figure 3| Root tip of Col plant at non-permissive temperature (31°C) stained with Toluidine Blue under light microscope with magnification 10X. The width of the root tip is approximately 0.14