We use many cell biological and microscope-based approaches to test how signaling molecules may act in plant cells. Manipulating cytoplasmic calcium levels in a living, functioning barley aleurone cell. This cell has been loaded with an indicator of cytoplasmic calcium levels and a compound that releases calcium upon UV illumination. Using UV pulses from a laser we can release known amounts of calcium into the cytoplasm of the cell. By manipulating calcium levels in this way we can test how these changes might participate in the transduction of the hormonal signals in these cells.
Times are in minutes.
In order to test the activity of single cells we are developing approaches such as being able to image the secretory activity of a single cell. We are also using other microscope technologies such as confocal microscopy, microinjection and computer-based image analysis to observe how plant cells respond to stimuli.