Analysis of rice root hair morphology using cryo-scanning electron microscopy

Root hairs are highly polarized long tubular outgrowths from the surface of epidermal trichoblast cells. Root hair development is a simple process that has facilitated for the study of cell fate determination and tissue differentiation in higher plants. Root hair patterning types in dicot and monocot plants are different. Rice is a monocot model plant with type II root hair pattern. The method to examine root hair fine structure and cell shape in rice may help elucidate the mechanism of cell initiation and differentiation in monocot plants. Compared with the critical-point-drying SEM, the Cryo-SEM method has great advantage, as the Cryo-SEM can well maintain the delicate structure of root hairs in their natural situation. Here we provide the methodology developed to investigate several rice mutants with impaired root hair cells using Cryo-SEM.