Plant histochemistry

Gahan PB. Plant Histochemistry and Cytochemistry An Introduction, Academic Press, London, UK, 1984. 

Pope et al. (1991) applied chemical-shift-selective imaging at microscopic resolution of various plant materials, including dried and undried fruits of fennel, to the study of selective imaging of aromatics and carbohydrates, water and oil. The non-invasive nature of the method gives it advantages over established methods of plant histochemistry, which involve sectioning and staining to reveal different chemical constituents. 

Although many published volumes exist regarding the cytochemical/ histochemical localizations of cellular and tissue chemicals for animal systems (1-10), there are only a few relatively recent monographs concerning plant cell/tissue cytochemistry and histochemistry (11-15). 

Plant cytochemistry/histochemistry continues to evolve as fluorescence microscopy (16-19), confocal fluorescence microscopy (20,21), and microspectrophotometry (22) expand our quantitative knowledge of the distributions of chemical constituents in plant cells and tissues. With regard to microspectrophotometry, this is possible for single cells, as the Arcturus Corporation (Mountain View, C A) has developed an instrument capable of isolating single cells. 

Preparation of Plant Cells and Tissues for Light Microscope Cytochemistry/Histochemistry... 

Harris N, Spence J, Oparka KJ. General and enzyme histochemistry, in Plant Cell Biology (Harris N, Oparka KJ, eds.), IRL Press, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 1994, pp. 51-68. 

Taylor R, Bailey BA, Dean JFD, Anderson JD. Translocation of fungal protein in plants, in Tissue Printing Tools for the Study of Anatomy, Histochemistry, and Gene Expression (ReidP, Pont-Lezica R, del Campillo E, Taylor R, eds.), Academic Press, New York, 1992, pp. 43-58. 

Bioindicators. Water-soluble, colorless tetrazolium salts can be reduced to water-insoluble, deeply colored formazans. The reduction of tetrazolium salts in plant tissue at pH 7.2 was first demonstrated in 1941 [77], Tetrazolium salts have since been used in biochemistry, cytochemistry, and histochemistry because of the great sensitivity of this reaction. They can be used to detect biological redox systems in blood serum, in living cells, tissues, tumors, and bacteria. Tetrazolium Blue [167429-81-7] (48) is a particularly sensitive reagent. 

Pope, J.M., Rumpel, H., Kuhn, W., Walker, R., Leach, D. and Sarafis, V. (1 991) Applications of chemical-shift-selective NMR microscopy to the non-invasive histochemistry of plant materials. Magnetic Resonance Imaging 9(3), 357-363. 

Errera examined the distribution of alkaloids in plant tissues by histochemistry and found that alkaloids were present in active tissues near the vegetative points, ovule, epidermis and the layer just inside of it, hair, peripheral layers of fruits and seeds, vascular bundle, cork cambium, cork tissues, and latex tube (9). Molisch microscopically investigated 15 kinds of alkaloids as distinguishable crystal forms after treatment with acids or alkaloid reagents, and then histochem-ically examined them in plant tissue and cell sections following treatment with acids or alkaloid reagents (9). Tunmann and Rosenthaler observed histochemi-cally the distribution of alkaloids in tissues and cells of 36 families of plants 10). 

Anatomy of the abscission zone at the base of mature fruits has been investigated in apples (10), cherries (11), citrus (12), and olives (13) and has been discussed as related to mechanical fruit removal (2, 14), The histochemistry of the separation layer of mature fruit is very similar to that of leaves of citrus (15) and bean (16,17), The actual separation occurs through one or more processes in the separation zone (a) a weakening of the cementing ability of the middle lamella between cells, and (b) a softening of the entire cells (17), In some plants, the abscission zone is structurally differentiated as a layer of compact cells or as a zone of localized cell division in other species, abscission may occur across a transect of cells which show little or no visible diflFerentiation (18). Thus, major components of the separation process involve the dissolution of middle lamella and lysis of cell walls or entire cells in the separation zone, but this is not necessarily associated with distinctive morphological characteristics (19). 

The noninvasive nature of NMR spectroscopy combined with the chemical specificity of the NMR method provides direct access to the distribution of various chemical constituents for the histochemistry of plant materials in situ NMR spectroscopy can be used to identify the major constituents, and chemical-.shift imaging can be used to spatially localize them. The latter can be applied to localize aromatics, carbohydrates, as well as water and fat or oil in plant samples. The suitability of many fresh fruits and living plants to be studied by NMR imaging results in a variety of applications in agriculture and food science [Mcc I, Mcc2]. 

Gutmann M, Feucht W (1991) A new method for selective localization of flavan-3-ols in plant tissues involving glycomethacrylate embedding and microwave irradiation. Histochemistry 96 83.86... 

In its broadest sense, histochemistry is the chemical study of morphologically defined plant or animal material. The methodology varies. The form... 

Nithammer A 1930 Biochemistry and histochemistry of plant fruits and grains. I. Biochem Zbl 220 348-357... 

Baud, S. Graham, I. A. A spatiotemporal analysis of enzymatic activities associated with carbon metabolism in wild-type and mutant embryos of Arabidopsis using in situ histochemistry. Plant J. 2006, 46, 155-169. 

Holloway PJ. Structure and histochemistry of plant cuticular membranes an overview. In Cutler DF, Alvin KL, Price CE, editors. The Plant Cuticle. London Academic Press, 1982 139-165. Kolattukudy PE. Plant waxes. Lipids. 1970 5 (2) 259-275. Kolattukudy PE, Walton TJ. Structure and biosynthesis of the hydroxy fatty acids of cutin in Viciafaba leaves. Biochemistry 1972 11(10) 1897-1907. 

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