title: Hide and seek: uncloaking the vegetative shoot apex of Arabidopsis thaliana.
abstract: Leaf primordia are iteratively formed on the flanks of the shoot apical meristem (SAM) at the vegetative shoot apex of Arabidopsis thaliana. The youngest leaf primordia and the SAM are extensively covered by older proliferating leaves, making it difficult to obtain accurate volumetric data from these structures. Combination of serial histological sections combined with 3D reconstruction software allowed us to acquire such data. Here, we compared the SAMs of wild-type plants of the Columbia-0 and Landsberg erecta ecotypes with those of clavata3-2 (clv3-2) mutants, which produce an enlarged SAM. In addition, the SAM size and morphology of plants over-expressing the gibberellin-20 oxidase (GA20OX) gene was examined, and the effect of mild osmotic stress on primordium size was measured. Efficient 3D visualization of gene expression patterns is also possible with this method, as illustrated by the analysis of SHOOTMERISTEMLESS:GUS and WUSCHEL:GUS reporter lines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Systems Biology, VIB, 9052 Gent, BelgiumDepartment of Plant Biotechnology and Genetics, Ghent University, 9052 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Hannes
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vanhaeren
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Inzé
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D009154:Mutation; D009997:Osmotic Pressure; D018515:Plant Leaves; D018520:Plant Shoots / Q000254:growth & development*