Fatal Attraction😈
7-hour timelapse showing the precision guidance of pollen tubes (gray) by synergid cells (pink) housed within the ovules (blue). Upon arrival, one synergid dies along with the explosion of the pollen tube allowing for sperm release (see top right ovule).
Experiments failing? Try this for instant beautiful results ✨
A drop of 50% isopropanol w/ 1% methyl blue over a bed of sunflower oil. Evaporation of the alcohol at the edge causes a difference in surface tension, generating a flow and ejection of droplets (Marangoni effect)
Electrical signaling in Venus Flytrap shown in real-time⚡️ Touching the trigger hairs of the trap causes an influx of calcium ions (shown on top) that spreads rapidly across the leaf. Two action potentials and the leaves quickly close to trap their prey 🪰
With a bit of synthetic biology and classical genetics, I transformed the unremarkable Arabidopsis flower into a beautiful pink rose 🌹🧬 with
@bencives
.
(A thread 🧵)
If you can't keep your plates clean, just work with Physcomitrella.. apparently, fungi are scared of it😀 (Anthoceros on the left, Physco on the right).
Carefully dissected Arabidopsis pistils show the beautiful ovules and journey of the pollen tubes hidden just beneath their carpel walls. Darkfield (left) and GUS staining (right).
Circumnutation is a common plant behavior in which plants rotate around a central axis, allowing exploration of the surrounding 3D space. This movement is the achievement of coordinated cell growth and turgor pressure changes, and was first analyzed in detail by Charles Darwin.
Inside look at pollen tube growth and fertilization within the pistil of an Arabidopsis flower just 8 hours (left) and 12 hours (right) after pollination.
The petals on this alpine flower (Saxifraga rotundifolia) are patterned with polka dots in a gradient from yellow to violet. A closer look shows the spots themselves have an intensity gradient 🧐
Growth of a seedling🌱
The first two "true leaves" of a seedling grow from the meristem, a region of small undifferentiated cells between the two embryonic leaves, or cotyledons. These are usually covered in spiky trichomes as they are vulnerable to herbivory by insects.
Someone once told me every Ph.D. involves some repetitive strenuous task. Mine has been dissecting and arranging tiny flower parts to image plant double fertilization.
Calcium Biosensing Visual Guide 🧵
Calcium is a divalent cation that plays an important role as a second messenger in the cytosol ([Ca2+]cyt) of plant cells, mediating a myriad of signalling responses throughout development and in response to different environmental stimuli.
I tried growing the biggest Arabidopsis thaliana plant possible for fun. Conclusions: hybrids are huge and pot size extends their lifetime dramatically.
Germination of an Arabidopsis seed over 7 days. First to emerge is the radicle (embryonic root) followed by the hypocotyl and cotyledons (embryonic shoot/leaves). Growth in the hypocotyl is solely driven by cell expansion making it all wiggly and cute.
Leguminous plants have an amazing way of capturing nitrogen-fixing bacteria called Rhizobia through the formation of root nodules. Popping a soybean nodule is oddly satisfying and shows just how much bacteria they contain.
Unlocking the beauty of Arabidopsis with genetics🌸
Various floral morphs and color variations found in segregants of my hybrid A.thaliana roses. Comment your favorite (A-F) and I will give it an upgrade 🧬
The most aesthetic Arabidopsis mutant- agamous.
Knockout of AGAMOUS leads to a rose-like "double flower" phenotype with an increased number of floral whorls consisting only of sepals and petals.
Many flowers open in the morning in response to light and their circadian rhythm to attract pollinators active during the day. In this 3-day timelapse, my Arabidopsis rose variety opens its petals in the morning despite having no pollen :)
Painting floral organs with genetically encoded RUBY, a non-invasive reporter utilizing red betalain synthesis from beets. Lines generated by cloning pro
@bencives
. For more on RUBY:
Amidst writing my thesis and unending data analysis, my A.thaliana rose varieties in the greenhouse are little motivators that fill me with joy. While there is little love for the aesthetics of A.thaliana, it's the "simplicity" and sheer knowledge it's given us that is beautiful
Electrical signaling in an Arabidopsis thaliana inflorescence upon leaf wounding. Fluorescence increases (GCaMP) indicate the uptake of calcium in the cells as a result of long-distance signaling. Tools like this reveal the inner workings of plants and their response to stimuli
Microscopic Explosions 💥
Arabidopsis pollen tubes race to the synergid cells (outlined) to be the first to explode and release their sperm cells. 3 hours in 7 seconds.
In the F2 a few pink Arabidopsis roses popped up that were obviously homozygous for agamous, erecta, and the RUBY transgene. To my knowledge, this type of flower is the only one in the world and came just in time for Christmas ✨
“It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the tip of the radicle thus endowed [with sensitivity] and having the power of directing the movements of the adjoining parts, acts like the brain of one of the lower animals" -Charles Darwin, The Power of Movement in Plants
3-day growth timelapse of a liverwort gemma. Gemmae of Marchantia are cute asexual propagules that are shed to produce new clonal plants. New cell division occurs in the two notches where meristematic cells develop into different tissues. (Scale ~1mm)
apetala1; cauliflower mutant Arabidopsis inflorescences. Maybe instead of applying Arabidopsis research to crop plants, we just make Arabidopsis a crop plant 🧐
Gemma growth of the liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha (10-day timelapse). The gametophyte grows with repeated dichotomous branching at the apex and long single-celled rhizoids emerging mostly from the ventral surface. Such a cool plant.
Growth of Anthoceros agrestis, an emerging hornwort model organism! To my knowledge, this is the first timelapse of Anthoceros- perhaps because it is so small (video 1cm in width) and grows so slowly (3 weeks shown in 10 seconds). Thanks,
@Alon_Israeli
for the plant :)
Our JoVE methods video for live imaging of double fertilization in Arabidopsis with SIV cum septum is now out:
Please visit my poster PO-518 at the ICAR conference to learn more!
A visual quick guide to the staging, dissection, and live imaging of double fertilization in Arabidopsis from our recently published JoVE methods paper:
Sperm cell attraction and entrance into the archegonial neck of Marchantia polymorpha. Yes, plants have sperm cells too, and yes some can swim :) 1000X magnification.
GFP quick guide! 🧵
Green fluorescent protein, isolated from Aequorea victoria 🪼, has 11 antiparallel beta strands forming a cylinder that contains the chromophore (green).
Fluorescence of the chromophore is protected from quenching with water by the stable barrel structure.
Migration of sperm cells in pollen tubes targeting embryo sacs in vitro🌸The jittery motion of the fluorescent sperm as they stream through the tube looks like little lightning bugs 🪲
3D reconstruction and segmentation of Arabidopsis synergid cells and their filiform apparatus- a thickened cell wall structure that facilitates secretion of pollen tube attractants. Thanks,
@CeliaBaroux
for the great Imaris tutorial!
Visualizing the intercellular spaces of a leaf 🌱
Syringe infiltration of tobacco leaves using congo red dye 🩸 and bright bottom illumination 💡reveals intercellular spaces connected by stomatal cavities.
No, these leaves are not internally bleeding. They are producing the pigment betalain using genes from beetroot with the RUBY system! Among the many uses of RUBY, I find it offers a way to visualize the colonization and efficiency of Agrobacterium within the leaf over time.
Fellow scientists and plant enthusiasts, I invite you to my public PhD defense and first ever art exhibition, Plant Models, on April 29. The defense and exhibition will be at the UZH Botanical Gardens starting at 11:00 and 17:00 CEST respectively. Exhibition details below 🧵
Marchantia polymorpha thallus (left) and a magnified airpore (right) under the scanning electron microscope. Notice the chloroplasts just under the surface of the epidermal cells. Scale bar 50μm.
Painting with pollen🌸
An inside look at the invasive growth of pollen tubes through the style and transmitting tract of an Arabidopsis pistil. This 2PEM tiled image shows a living dissected pistil (no staining) with markers for the ovules, embryo sac, and synergid cells.
These leaf-shaped, chloroplast-containing swimmers aren't plants, but rather protists of the Phacus genus. Their red eyespot guides them to the light of the microscope... even when a water flea stands in the way.
The Final Interaction 🌹
After several hours of growth through the flower, a pollen tube (pink) arrives at the synergid cells (white), its final destination before both cells die in order to deliver the sperm cells for double fertilization.
Thanks to everyone who came to my PhD defense and following art exhibition! It was an amazing day I will never forget :) Pictures of the presentation, committee exam, and exhibition in the thread🧵
3D reconstruction of Marchantia polymorpha gemmae- masses of cells by which the plant clonally reproduces. The cell patterning is always so intriguing..
#FluorescenceFriday
These trichomes on baby cacti are a beautiful example that spines are actually modified leaves. Thanks,
@MartinAle1981
who grew these from seed on MS media.
So I'm randomly listening to this podcast and
@jrkelly
starts talking about the Arabidopsis rose I made (20:44)!!! That made my freaking day, but sadly I did not make it at home in my basement 😅
Swarming pollen tube growth through the transmitting tract of a single Arabidopsis locule (my submission to last years Nikon Small Worlds competition). Congrats to Mizuta et al who just published a similar "single locule" technique using deep 2PEM imaging:
Fertilization in real-time.
Sea urchin eggs injected with sperm under a coverslip are fertilized within seconds. At the site of sperm entry, the vitelline layer is lifted and develops a fertilization envelope to prevent polyspermy.
Arabidopsis thaliana and her bigger sister, Arabidopsis Lyrata. Two closely related species with very different reproductive strategies- can you tell which one is the outcrosser?
Floral design by synthetic biology represents a fascinating research avenue where the phenotype is obvious, beautiful, and easily understood by non-biologists. Check out Sebastian (
@ATinyGreenCell
) who is an amateur biologist and flower designer for more cool works.
SEM array tomography of an entire Arabidopsis ovule. This cross-section gives a glimpse into the extreme complexity of this beautiful plant organ. With this false coloring, the starch granules and chalazal end of the embryo sac look like pebbles in a stream :)
Many flowers change color following pollination to direct the attention of pollinators 🐝 Here, this cowpea flower changes from white to yellow upon self-pollination ✨
Satisfying syringe infiltrations of Nicotiana benthamiana using congo red. Liquid enters through stomata under pressure and travels through intercellular spaces connected by stomatal cavities.
Having trouble with in vitro fertilization imaging in Arabidopsis? In this
@JoVEJournal
paper, I describe our modified technique, SIV cum septum, which allows for the observation of up to 40 fertilization events per imaging session:
Beautiful autofluorescence of Utricularia vulgaris that I found in our garden pond.
The traps (green) on this bladderwort catch small aquatic prey that brush against their trigger hairs. Their "trapdoors" close in 10 milliseconds making them the fastest carnivorous plants.
Thank you to Mitsuyasu Hasebe's group who shared this rare transformant line with us. For more details on calcium signaling in flytrap check out their paper here:
Etiolation is a developmental program flowering plants undergo in the absence of light leading to a longer stem and pale yellow leaves. When finally re-exposed to light the leaves turn green and open up :) Thanks,
@FMirasole
for providing the seedlings 🌱
This diatom-filled donut is actually an amoeba (Arcella vulgaris) that makes its own shell for protection and trapping prey. Check out the contractile vacuoles expelling water from the cytoplasm to keep it from exploding 🧐
No biological question, just intriguing photos of liverwort, hornwort, and moss chloroplasts. Thanks to
@BioBiest
for providing the Anthoceros and completing the bryophyte holy trinity.
Time-lapse of the beautiful filamentous blue-green algae (*not a plant), Oscillatoria. These cyanobacteria slide back and forth orienting themselves towards the light.
Proteins won't crystallize? Make these instant beautiful salt crystals instead🙌
Evaporation causes the solution to become supersaturated enabling crystallization. Make sure to wear gloves- or just try the soy sauce :) Timelapses taken at 160X using polarized light or DIC.
In our plant biology practical, we challenged the students to prepare cross-sections of pumpkin stems stained with toluidine blue🎃 Focus-stacked images of the best slides produced textbook-level diagrams of vascular bundles and xylem spirals :)
First
@bencives
transformed wild-type Col0 with pLAT52:RUBY, a reporter that converts tyrosine to vividly red betalain (the same compound seen in beetroot). While many lines were pollen-specific as expected, he found one line that expressed RUBY just in the petals (3rd from left)
I usually just post plant bio art, but damn my primer validation for qPCR (left) looks like a little kid drew a crayon rainbow. Right shows the AI interpretation of what happened inside the thermocycler hehe.
Parts of the plant cell as seen with TEM and SEM array tomography (top right) false-colored for visualization. Thanks,
@uzh_microscopy
for the great course on sample preparation for electron microscopy 🔬
Store-bought yellow onions are bulbs, modified stems in a resting state which can quickly grow leaves and roots when conditions are favorable. Here's a week of growth in a glass of water.
I then crossed this pPETAL:RUBY lines with a classic Arabidopsis mutant, agamous, that produces infinitely repeating floral whorls of petals and sepals. Because this mutant phenotype is more pronounced in Landsberg erecta, I used ag-1/+ hets we found by EMS in Ler0 background.
Took a quick break from biology to help with my student's project in fluid dynamics. Marangoni effect demonstrated under the microscope using methyl blue and isopropanol.
Found intriguing phenomena while curiously emulsifying DNA loading buffer and isopropanol in a suspension of oil. Looks like I may have accidentally created a new universe 🤯
This cute cuttlefish (sepiolia atlantica) has elastic pigment bodies, called chromatophores, that retract and expand rapidly to camouflage its body.
Magnification of the chromatophores shows an orchestra of these individual neuromuscular end organs contracting in sync.
My first scientific paper was published today :) It couldn't have been possible without the invaluable help of my undergraduate/ masters mentor
@rpalaniveluaz
, and those that paved the way in GPI research before me. Hopefully many more papers to come!
Happy to see my review with
@rpalaniveluaz
published in the Plant Reproduction journal! Here we compare the life of mammalian and plant GPI-anchored proteins from synthesis to the plasma membrane with a special focus on their role in reproduction:
Cytoplasmic streaming of mitochondria within an onion epidermal cell (40X speed). Captured by students of our plant genetics course who successfully particle bombarded a store-bought onion :)
This beady eye boy (well, hermaphrodite) looks to have gone vegetarian. Dalyellia, a genus of flatworms, are photophobic making them particularly hard to follow under the microscope.
#Planarians
GCaMP has been used in plants to show the dynamics of Ca2+ that were previously only measured by electrodes. For example, the well known electrical signaling of Venus fly trap can now be visualized and were measured to propagate at about 50mm per second.