Lee Karen J I, Calder Grant M, Hindle Christopher R, Newman Jacob L, Robinson Simon N, Avondo Jerome J H Y, Coen Enrico S
John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Colney Lane, Norwich, UK.
J Exp Bot. 2017 Jan 1;68(3):527-538. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erw452.
Optical projection tomography (OPT) is a well-established method for visualising gene activity in plants and animals. However, a limitation of conventional OPT is that the specimen upper size limit precludes its application to larger structures. To address this problem we constructed a macro version called Macro OPT (M-OPT). We apply M-OPT to 3D live imaging of gene activity in growing whole plants and to visualise structural morphology in large optically cleared plant and insect specimens up to 60 mm tall and 45 mm deep. We also show how M-OPT can be used to image gene expression domains in 3D within fixed tissue and to visualise gene activity in 3D in clones of growing young whole Arabidopsis plants. A further application of M-OPT is to visualise plant-insect interactions. Thus M-OPT provides an effective 3D imaging platform that allows the study of gene activity, internal plant structures and plant-insect interactions at a macroscopic scale.
光学投影断层扫描（OPT）是一种用于可视化动植物基因活性的成熟方法。然而，传统OPT的一个局限性在于样本的尺寸上限使其无法应用于更大的结构。为了解决这个问题，我们构建了一个称为宏观OPT（M-OPT）的大型版本。我们将M-OPT应用于生长中的整株植物基因活性的三维实时成像，并可视化高达60毫米高、45毫米深的大型光学透明植物和昆虫标本的结构形态。我们还展示了M-OPT如何用于在固定组织内三维成像基因表达域，以及在生长中的年轻拟南芥整株植物克隆中三维可视化基因活性。M-OPT的另一个应用是可视化植物与昆虫的相互作用。因此，M-OPT提供了一个有效的三维成像平台，能够在宏观尺度上研究基因活性、植物内部结构以及植物与昆虫的相互作用。
