Abstract
A technique has been developed that results in the reversible permeabilization of the cell wall and plasmalemma of soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) root cells grown in suspension and callus culture. Cells in culture are treated with saponin (0.1 mg/ml) for 15 min at room temperature. They are then coincubated in separate experiments with fluorescent-derivatized dextrans (20–70 kDa) or fluorescein-conjugated goat anti-rabbit immunoglobulin G to ascertain the exclusion size of macromolecules capable of diffusing across the cell wall and plasmalemma into the cytoplasm. Following an incubation period of 30 min, it was observed by conventional and confocal fluorescence microscopy that all derivatized macromolecules tested (20–140 kDa) could be incorporated into the cytoplasm, but not into the vacuole. This procedure did not appear to affect cell viability adversely. A normal doubling time was observed for these cells following the permeabilization procedure.
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Abbreviations
- FDA:
-
fluorescein diacetate
- FITC-20 kDa, FITC-40 kDa, FITC-70 kDa dextrans:
-
fluorescein-derivatized 20-kDa, 40-kDa, and 70-kDa dextrans
- IgG:
-
immunoglobulin G
- kDa:
-
kilodalton
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Paramjit K. Gharyal wishes to thank the Nitrogen Availability Program at Michigan State University for financial support. We also thank Edwin de Feijter of Meridian Instruments for technical assistance in performing the confocal measurements. This work was supported by a grant from the U.S. — Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD project No. US-1384-87).
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Meiners, S., Gharyal, P.K. & Schindler, M. Permeabilization of the plasmalemma and wall of soybean root cells to macromolecules. Planta 184, 443–447 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00197891
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00197891