Live-Cell Imaging of Cytoskeletal Responses and Trafficking During Fungal Elicitation

Understanding the mechanisms driving plant defense responses holds the promise to provide new means to reinforce plant defense both through agrochemicals and targeted genetic improvement. The capability to quantify impacts of phytopathogens on subcellular dynamics is particularly important when elucidating the role of specific virulence mechanisms that make contributions toward infection success but do not individually alter disease outcome. Acquiring these data requires an investigator to achieve the successful handling of both plant and microbe prior to observation and an appreciation of the challenges in acquiring images under these conditions. In this chapter we describe a protocol to support the observation of cytoskeletal dynamics surrounding sites of fungal interaction, specifically the powdery mildew Blumeria graminis f.sp. hordei on the surface of Arabidopsis thaliana. Furthermore, we also describe a procedure to expose etiolated (dark-grown) hypocotyls to a molecular pattern to activate defense responses in the absence of a phytopathogen with the aim of observing localized actin-dependent trafficking.