Analysis of chlorophyll fluorescence reveals stage specific patterns of chloroplast-containing cells during Arabidopsis embryogenesis

The basic body plan of a plant is established early in embryogenesis when cells differentiate, giving rise to the apical and basal regions of the embryo. Using chlorophyll fluorescence as a marker for chloroplasts, we have detected specific patterns of chloroplast-containing cells at specific stages of embryogenesis. Non-randomly distributed chloroplast-containing cells are seen as early as the globular stage of embryogenesis in Arabidopsis. In the heart stage of embryogenesis, chloroplast containing cells are detected in epidermal cells as well as a central region of the heart stage embryo, forming a triangular septum of chloroplast-containing cells that divides the embryo into three equal sectors. Torpedo stage embryos have chloroplast-containing epidermal cells and a central band of chloroplast-containing cells in the cortex layer, just below the shoot apical meristem. In the walking-stick stage of embryogenesis, chloroplasts are present in the epidermal, cortex and endodermal cells. The chloroplasts appear reduced or absent from the provascular and columella cells of walking-stick stage embryos. These results suggest that there is a tight regulation of plastid differentiation during embryogenesis that generates specific patterns of chloroplast-containing cells in specific cell layers at specific stages of embryogenesis.

The Ca2+ pump inhibitor, thapsigargin, inhibits root gravitropism in Arabidopsis thaliana

Thapsigargin, a specific inhibitor of most animal intracellular SERCA-type Ca2+ pumps present in the sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum, was originally isolated from the roots of the Mediterranean plant Thapsia gargancia L. Here, we demonstrate that this root-derived compound is capable of altering root gravitropism in Arabidopsis thaliana. Thapsigargin concentrations as low as 0.1 µM alter root gravitropism whereas under similar conditions cyclopiazonic acid does not. Furthermore, a fluorescently conjugated thapsigargin (BODIPY FL thapsigargin) suggests that target sites for thapsigargin are located in intracellular organelles in the root distal elongation zone and the root cap, regions known to regulate root gravitropism.