Live imaging of microtubules in petal conical cells

The microtubule cytoskeleton plays an important role in cell shape and plant development. During the past decades, the ability to use confocal microcopy to observe microtubules in living cells using fluorescent protein fusions has given plant scientists the opportunity to answer outstanding biological questions. Plants contain diverse epidermal cells with distinct morphologies and physiological functions. For example, flowering plants have specialized petal conical cells that likely facilitate functions such as providing grips for bee pollinators. Here, we summarize recent progress on live imaging of the microtubule cytoskeleton in conical cells. Firstly, we present a simple method for live-cell confocal imaging of conical cells, which is suitable for the quantification of the cell geometry. Secondly, we describe a method for observing microtubule organization in conical cells of Arabidopsis thaliana expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged α-tubulin 6 (GFP-TUA6). These live imaging approaches are likely to lead to rapid advances in our knowledge of the role of microtubules in conical cell shaping.