Improved clearing method contributes to deep imaging of plant organs

Tissue clearing methods are increasingly essential for the microscopic observation of internal tissues of thick biological organs. We previously developed TOMEI, a clearing method for plant tissues; however, it could not entirely remove chlorophylls nor reduce the fluorescent signal of fluorescent proteins. Here, we developed an improved TOMEI method (iTOMEI) to overcome these limitations. First, a caprylyl sulfobetaine was determined to efficiently remove chlorophylls from Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings without GFP quenching. Next, a weak alkaline solution restored GFP fluorescence, which was mainly lost during fixation, and an iohexol solution with a high refractive index increased sample transparency. These procedures were integrated to form iTOMEI. iTOMEI enables the detection of much brighter fluorescence than previous methods in tissues of A. thaliana, Oryza sativa, and Marchantia polymorpha. Moreover, a mouse brain was also efficiently cleared by the iTOMEI-Brain method within 48 h, and strong fluorescent signals were detected in the cleared brain.