Visualizing Organelles in Living Plant Cells by Fluorescence Microscopy
Maureen Hanson

Scientists now can visualize different organelles in the living plant cell by labeling them with fluorescent proteins. Genes from jellyfish and other marine organisms that encode fluorescent proteins (FPs) can be introduced into plants, resulting in transgenic plants that contain FPs in various subcellular locations, such as the nucleus, cytoplasm, mitochondria, chloroplasts, peroxisomes, etc. Living cells can be observed over time in fluorescent microscopes to view movement and position of organelles in different tissue types.

In this Exploration, the instructor will give a short lecture describing how genes are constructed to target proteins to different subcellular locations and how transgenic plants are produced. Then we will use fluorescent microscopes to observe living transgenic plant cells that are labeled in several different subcellular locations. Each student will obtain digital photographs of a plant cell with labeled organelles.