2012 Small World In Motion Competition

A sheet of light is used to illuminate the plant (Arabidopsis thaliana), from the side while collecting the emitted light at a perpendicular axis. The plant grows in an upright position in the microscope’s specimen chamber.  While the leaves remain in the air, the root system is perfused with liquid medium. and root stably expresses the early endosome/exosome marker 35S::GFP-RabA1d. The quick endosomes move with up to 10 µm/s, which presents a serious imaging challenge. This technique allows new insides in the dynamics of endosomal compartments in plant cells. The Arabidopsis line was kindly provided by Tobias Berson and Jozef Samaj.