An optical imaging chamber for viewing living plant cells and tissues at high resolution for extended periods

BACKGROUND: Recent developments in both microscopy and fluorescent protein technologies have made live imaging a powerful tool for the study of plant cells. However, the complications of keeping plant material alive during a long duration experiment while maintaining maximum resolution has limited the use of these methods. RESULTS: Here, we describe an imaging chamber designed to overcome these limitations, which is flexible enough to support a range of sizes of plant materials. We were able use confocal microscopy to follow growth and development of plant cells and tissues over several days. The chamber design is based on a perfusion system, so that the addition of drugs and other experimental treatments are also possible. CONCLUSIONS: In this article we present a design of imaging chamber that makes it possible to image plant material with high resolution for extended periods of time. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13007-015-0065-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.