Estimation of Silica Cell Silicification Level in Grass Leaves Using in situ Charring Method

Silica cells are specialized leaf epidermal cells in grasses with almost the whole cell volume filled with solid silica. In sorghum, silica deposition in silica cells takes place in young, elongating leaves around the mid-length of the leaf. We developed a protocol for estimating the level of silica cell silicification in Sorghum bicolor leaves using in situ charring method ( Kumar et al., 2017a ). Here, we provide greater details on our protocol and method of image analysis. Although we based our protocol on sorghum, this protocol can be extended for estimating silica cell silicification level in any grass species.