Essential Methods of Plant Sample Preparation for Light Microscopy

Methods Mol Biol. 2019:1992:1-26. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-9469-4_1.

Abstract

There are various preparatory techniques for light microscopy permitting access to the inner structure of plant body and its development. Minute objects might be processed as whole-mount preparations, while voluminous ones should be separated into smaller pieces. Here we summarize some of the "classical" techniques to cut more voluminous objects into slices and access their inner structure either for simple anatomical analysis or for further processing (e.g., histochemistry, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, enzyme histochemistry).

Keywords: Cryotome; Fixation; Freehand sectioning; Hand microtome; Paraffin; Sections; Serial sections; Whole mount.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Histocytochemistry / methods
  • Histocytological Preparation Techniques / methods*
  • Microscopy / methods*
  • Microtomy / methods
  • Paraffin Embedding / methods
  • Plants / chemistry
  • Plants / ultrastructure*
  • Staining and Labeling / methods
  • Tissue Fixation / methods