A020 - Whole workflow for plant expansion microscopy: from sample preparation to image analysis

Magali Grison (magali.grison@u-bordeaux.fr)
Mónica Fernández-monreal (monica.fernandez-monreal@u-bordeaux.fr)

Expansion microscopy (ExM) is a relatively new super-resolution method based in the isotropic dilation of the biological sample in order to overcome the diffraction limit of conventional microscopy. Since its development in 2014, many laboratories have been implementing and adapting the technique to their needs. Intercellular communication is critical for multicellularity, and evolution gave rise to distinct mechanisms to facilitate this process. Plants have evolved remarkable intercellular structures -the Plasmodesmata (PD) pores- which interconnect virtually all cells within the plant body, establishing direct continuity of both plasma membrane, endoplasmic reticulum and cytosol. Although, PD are critical for development, environmental adaptation, defense signaling, and spreading of viruses. Due to their nanoscopic size, 40 nm width x 100 nm length, PD are quite easily visible in electron microscopy but not with conventional photonic microscopy. To overcome this limitation, we applied Expansion Microscopy in Arabidopsis thaliana root tip and obtain a resolution never achieve before. In this workshop, we show that ExM can also be applied in plants, more particularly in Arabidopsis root tip, and we present a whole workflow including microscopy acquisition, expansion and distortion analysis and image treatment.