Microwave Protocols for Paraffin Microtechnique and In Situ Localization in Plants.

CNR Biological Imaging Facility, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California at Berkeley, 111 Koshland Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720

: We have developed a microwave protocol for a paraffin-embedding microtechnique of the shoot apical meristem of Zea mays and have successfully applied this protocol to other plant tissues. This protocol decreases the time required for all aspects of microtechnique tissue processing, including fixation (24 hr to 15 min), dehydration (73 hr to 10 min), and infiltration (96 hr to 3 hr). Additionally, the time required to adhere paraffin ribbons to gelatin-coated slides and for the Johanson's safranin O, fast green FCF staining protocol has been significantly decreased. Using this technique, the quality of tissue preservation and subsequent in situ localization of knotted mRNA was increased by using microwaves.

PMID: 9990871 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]