Re: Propidium iodide and plant cell walls
| From: | RichardWHorobin@aol.com |
<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>G'day Royston - you wrote:
<BR>
<BR><BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">I used propidium iodide as a counterstain for plant cell wall analysis and
<BR>found that it significantly stained cell walls in highly lignified tissues.
<BR>Does anyone know about this phenomena, and can tell me what specific
<BR>components are being stained</BLOCKQUOTE>.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">
<BR>
<BR>I'm not a botanist, but I think that many cationic (ie 'basic') dyes and
<BR>fluorochromes stain in this way. Seem to remember doing handcut sections of
<BR>plant stem in my youth, which I then stained with Toluidine blue, and the
<BR>lignified vascular material stained. Lignins are polyphenolics arent they, so
<BR>they will be both happy to bind aromatics (like most dye and fluorochrome
<BR>stains) and moreover the phenols will be ionised to some degree and so will
<BR>like cationic dyes etc in particular. So - the lignins presumably?
<BR>
<BR>If you wanted an informed response from a 'histochemical botanist' - try
<BR>going to the Biological Staining Commission website - your browser should
<BR>find it, if not go via the Commission's journal Biotechnic & Histochemistry
<BR>site - and look for the Trustee called Prof Graem Berlyn. He'd know!
<BR>
<BR>Bye now - Richard Horobin
<BR>
<BR></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">Institute of Biomedical & Life Sciences, University of Glasgow
<BR><B>T direct 01796-474 480 --- E RichardWHorobin@aol.com</B>
<BR><I>"What should we expect? Everything."</I></FONT></HTML>
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