In this edition of the newsletter we bring you two short recorded demonstrations from Dr Marty Jopson on investigating plants with microscopy, a news story about the discovery of a new plant organ, and we’re also highlighting our image collection to inspire.

 
Scanning Electron Microscopy with Marty Jopson

Recorded for the undergraduate alumni of the Gatsby Plant Science Summer School (our sister project), these very clear videos give a great insight into modern Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Dr Marty Jopson demonstrates its use exploring a dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) and an iridescent hibiscus (Hibiscus trionum) flower. Great for introducing your students to the inner workings of an SEM in the dandelion video.

Both videos cover how the microscope works and show its use in understanding the structures of these plants. In the dandelion video, Marty covers some elements of plant reproduction, including how the dandelion avoids self-pollination and showing the incredible structure of the dandelion pollen. In the hibiscus video, we see the cells of the hibiscus petals and how the ridged structures (as opposed to any pigments) create an iridescent effect, similar to the back of a CD or DVD.

Great for a recap of scanning electron microscopy or simply to explore the amazing plant structures we cannot see without it.

Image: A still from Dr Marty Jopson - microscopy for investigating plants - dandelion.

Commonly used lab plant reveals a secret

A lab plant that has been poked and prodded under microscopes for decades has revealed an unlikely secret. Scientists have identified that Arabidopsis thaliana, has a “cantil” — a newly reported plant organ named for its cantilever-like way of branching off of the main stem of the plant. Currently it seems that the structure only appears in some varieties of A. thaliana and only when grown under certain conditions.

“If you told me of a new organ in a weird plant in Amazonia, I wouldn’t be surprised at all,” says François Parcy, a plant biologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris. “What struck me is this happened in Arabidopsis.”Timothy Gookin, a molecular biologist at Penn State University, first suspected that there had been some contamination or that a mutation had occurred when he first noticed some varieties of the plant had odd stalks jutting out from the stem. It has taken twelve years of investigating to show that the rare stalks are actually a new type of plant organ.

What triggers this “odd stalk” to occur? Delayed flowering. Like many plants, short days prompt A. thaliana, to store resources whilst long days lead the plant to flower. Cantils form when that transition from stockpiling to blooming is delayed, as the plant keeps growing while waiting for the signal to flower.

Scientists’ preference for using long growing days and conditions that lead to fast growing flowers have helped keep cantils hidden in hundreds of labs across the world. The organs are able to develop in the wild but some of the preferred faster growing varieties have lost the genetic ability to produce cantils. There is still some further research to do as it is unclear how the plants use the organs.

Cantils are, so far, known to occur only in A. thaliana. Therefore, it isn’t understood to cause a rewriting of biology textbooks just yet! Teachers, take a moment to breathe.

A lesson to learn here is that we must continue to keep observing closely. If this finding can spark our imaginations with a lab plant used so often, what other secrets might lie in store?

To read the article in full, click here. You can view our website for ideas on using Arabidopsis in the lab. Take a look at an image showing a 3D projection of a section of the upper surface of a leaf of thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) further down in the newsletter.

Image: A newly described cantilever-like organ (arrow) develops only in some Arabidopsis thaliana varieties.

Credit: T Gookin.

SAPS Image Collection

Bring biology to life in your classroom with the use of our SAPS Image Collection. Hosted on Flickr. This valuable resource contains over 200 photos for you to use in PowerPoints, worksheets and posters - freely available for your educational use.

The image collection includes a range of images, illustrating topics such as ecosystems, plant-pollinator interactions, adaptations and plant morphology. The database also includes a number of images taken using a confocal microscope to illustrate plant cell structure in detail. Each image is accompanied by a detailed description, putting the image into the all-important context.

You can view the whole collection here as well as our collection that is specific to pollen.

Below are some favourites from the collection!

Top to bottom:

Image: Longitudinal section of xylem vessels from stem of Sunflower (Helianthus annuus). Credit: Leighton Dann.

Image: Stained pollen of Triticum dicoccoides. Credit: SAPS.

Image: Dehisced (opened) capsule of a bedding Viola (Viola cv.) Credit: John Bebbington FRPS.

SAPS Email

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Email is currently the most reliable way to get hold of the SAPS team as we are still mainly working from home.

Without wanting to sound like a school report - it has been a challenging year to say the least, but the dedication and hard work of those working in our schools, colleges, universities and more widely in the education sector has been “outstanding”. We at SAPS take our hats off to you.

The SAPS Team