Imaging of phenotypes, gene expression, and protein localization during embryonic root formation in Arabidopsis

Plants grow elaborate architectures by repeatedly initiating new organs post-embryonically. The competence to do so depends on the activity of meristems, stem cell niches located at the tips of shoot and root. These meristems are first specified early during embryogenesis. Therefore, important insight into the activity of factors that are central to the establishment of stem cell niches in plants can be gained from studying early embryogenesis. However, embryos are not directly accessible to microscopic observation since they are embedded within the seed, which is itself enveloped by the fruit. Here we describe a suite of methods for the analysis of mutant phenotypes, fluorescent reporter gene expression and protein localization in Arabidopsis embryos, and show how these methods can be used to visualize key factors in embryonic root formation.