Live-imaging of the Arabidopsis inflorescence meristem

The aboveground tissues of higher plants are derived from a small population of stem cells located at the shoot apex within a structure called the shoot apical meristem (SAM). The SAM not only includes the stem cells but also incorporates a region from which lateral organs arise. The SAM is therefore of prime interest for understanding plant growth and development. In this chapter we outline methods for using confocal microscopy to image the Arabidopsis inflorescence SAM. This method enables detailed examination of cell division and growth patterns (Reddy et al., Development 131:4225-4237, 2004) as well as gene expression and protein localization patterns over time (Heisler et al. Curr Biol 15:1899-1911, 2005). When combined with perturbation approaches, the method offers an extremely powerful system for investigating SAM function in great detail.