Quantitative methods in microscopy to assess pollen viability in different plant taxa

High-quality pollen is a prerequisite for plant reproductive success. Pollen viability and sterility can be routinely assessed using common stains and manual microscope examination, but with low overall statistical power. Current automated methods are primarily directed towards the analysis of pollen sterility, and high throughput solutions for both pollen viability and sterility evaluation are needed that will be consistent with emerging biotechnological strategies for crop improvement. Our goal is to refine established labelling procedures for pollen, based on the combination of fluorescein (FDA) and propidium iodide (PI), and to develop automated solutions for accurately assessing pollen grain images and classifying them for quality. We used open-source software programs (CellProfiler, CellProfiler Analyst, Fiji and R) for analysis of images collected from 10 pollen taxa labelled using FDA/PI. After correcting for image background noise, pollen grain images were examined for quality employing thresholding and segmentation. Supervised and unsupervised classification of per-object features was employed for the identification of viable, dead and sterile pollen. The combination of FDA and PI dyes was able to differentiate between viable, dead and sterile pollen in all the analysed taxa. Automated image analysis and classification significantly increased the statistical power of the pollen viability assay, identifying more than 75,000 pollen grains with high accuracy (R² = 0.99) when compared to classical manual counting. Overall, we provide a comprehensive set of methodologies as baseline for the automated assessment of pollen viability using fluorescence microscopy, which can be combined with manual and mechanized imaging systems in fundamental and applied research on plant biology. We also supply the complete set of pollen images (the FDA/PI pollen dataset) to the scientific community for future research.

Characterisation of early responses in lead accumulation and localization of Salix babylonica L. roots

BACKGROUND

Lead (Pb) is a harmful pollutant that disrupts normal functions from the cell to organ levels. Salix babylonica is characterized by high biomass productivity, high transpiration rates, and species specific Pb. Better understanding the accumulating and transporting Pb capability in shoots and roots of S. babylonica, the toxic effects of Pb and the subcellular distribution of Pb is very important.

RESULTS

Pb exerted inhibitory effects on the roots and shoots growth at all Pb concentrations. According to the results utilizing inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), S. babylonica can be considered as a plant with great phytoextraction potentials as translocation factor (TF) value > 1 is observed in all treatment groups throughout the experiment. The Leadmium™ Green AM dye test results indicated that Pb ions initially entered elongation zone cells and accumulated in this area. Then, ions were gradually accumulated in the meristem zone. After 24 h of Pb exposure, Pb accumulated in the meristem zone. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray analyses (EDXA) results confirmed the fluorescent probe observations and indicated that Pb was localized to the cell wall and cytoplasm. In transverse sections of the mature zone, Pb levels in the cell wall and cytoplasm of epidermal cells was the lowest compared to cortical and vessel cells, and an increasing trend in Pb content was detected in cortical cells from the epidermis to vascular cylinder. Similar results were shown in the Pb content in the cell wall and cytoplasm of the transverse sections of the meristem. Cell damage in the roots exposed to Pb was detected by propidium iodide (PI) staining, which was in agreement with the findings of Pb absorption in different zones of S. babylonica roots under Pb stress.

CONCLUSION

S. babylonica L. is observed as a plant with great potential of Pb-accumulation and Pb-tolerance. The information obtained here of Pb accumulation and localization in S. babylonica roots can furthers our understanding of Pb-induced toxicity and its tolerance mechanisms, which will provide valuable and scientific information to phytoremediation investigations of other woody plants under Pb stress.

Determination of genome size variations among different date palm cultivars (Phoenix dactylifera L.) by flow cytometry

Date palm is an important fruit crop and member of palm family, reported with varied ploidy levels, i.e., 14 (2n = 28) to 18 (2n = 36) pairs of chromosomes and genomic size due to the limited work done on its cytological aspect. The amount of nuclear DNA content is extremely important to understand the hereditary constituent of any species. Hence, the present study was conducted with the aim to estimate the ploidy level and especially the genomic size (C value) of date palm by studying fifty date palm cultivars with flow cytometry using propidium iodide (PI) as the fluorescent dye. The maize genome size (5.14 pg) was used as the internal reference. The results obtained regarding genomic size of date palm cultivars significantly varied and ranged from 1.59 to 1.84 pg 2C^-1 or 780.11 to 903.06 Mbp when converted into base pairs of DNA. The average genome size of studied cultivars was observed to be 1.726 2C^-1, while, that of nuclei significantly varied from cultivar to cultivar and appeared independent to the genomic size of the studied cultivars. Intraspecific variations were not detected among five exotic cultivars (Amber, Sugae, Medjool, Safawi and Ajwa) grown in Pakistan in relation to their place of origin. The cluster analysis exhibited two main groups of cultivars, the first group comprised 65.3% (33 cultivars) and the second group contained 35.7% (17 cultivars). In addition, no ploidy was observed among all the studied cultivars. The findings regarding the estimated genomic sizes of studied cultivars may be helpful in understanding date palm genetics, breeding and genome sequencing programs further.

Cell Cycle Analysis of CML Stem Cells Using Hoechst 33342 and Propidium Iodide

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative disease with an expansion of white blood cells. The current treatments for CML are shown not to be long-term effective because of CML stem cells' insensitivity to tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Therefore, studying more about CML stem cells is essential to understand the pathways of CML stem cell development and proliferation and finally lead to effective treatments to eliminate CML stem cells and eradicate CML. This chapter describes two methods to analyze cell cycle of CML stem cells. The rare population of CML stem cells can be identified by staining with cell surface markers, and then DNA-binding dyes Hoechst 33342 and propidium iodide (PI) are added to stain the DNA content which is changed when cells go through different phases of the cell cycle. Samples are run through the flow cytometer to be analyzed based on different absorbance and emission wavelengths of different florescent colors.

Propidium iodide (PI) stains Nissl bodies and may serve as a quick marker for total neuronal cell count

Propidium iodide (PI) reacts with both DNA and RNA and is a commonly used fluorescent reagent for nucleic acid staining. The aim of the study was to compare the cellular staining patterns of PI with that of Nissl staining in rat nervous tissues and to report a modified staining method that selectively labels Nissl bodies in neurons. Cryosections and paraffin sections of different tissues of normal Sprague-Dawley rats, including trigeminal ganglia, dorsal root ganglia, spinal cord, liver, and small intestine, were stained by either PI or the hematoxylin and eosin method. Some sections were treated with RNase or DNase before the above staining, and some were double stained with PI and a Nissl stain. The sections were observed by light, fluorescence or confocal microscopy. Results showed strong PI signals detected as patterns of granules in the neuronal cytoplasm of all nervous tissues, whereas the staining of neuronal nuclei was weaker. In contrast, nuclei of neuroglial cells were strongly stained by PI, while the cytoplasm was not obviously stained. Pretreatment of the neural tissue with RNase abolished the PI signals. Furthermore, the PI positive granules in neuronal cytoplasm co-localized with Nissl bodies stained by the fluorescent Nissl stain. When the tissue was pretreated with DNase, PI only stained the cytoplasmic granules of neurons, but not that of glial cells. Our results show that PI stains Nissl bodies and may serve as an economical and convenient neuron marker for neuronal cell counting when specific neural markers such as antibodies are not readily available.