Live-Cell Imaging of Fluorescently-Tagged Phloem Proteins with Confocal Microscopy
Thibaud Cayla1,2, Rozenn Le Hir1, Sylvie Dinant3
1Institute Jean-Pierre Bourgin for Plant Sciences, Université Paris-Saclay, AgroParisTech-INRAE, Versailles, France.
Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.)
|September 2, 2026
Abstract:
Confocal laser scanning microscopy can enable observation of phloem cells in living tissues. Here, we describe live imaging of phloem cells in the leaves and roots of Arabidopsis thaliana using fluorescently-tagged proteins, either expressed in the vasculature using phloem-specific promoters or constitutively expressed in reference marker lines. We provide instructions for identifying the majority of phloem cell types and a step-by-step protocol for the precise cellular and subcellular localization of phloem proteins.


