Confocal micrograph of d. hartmeyerorum trichomes

[toddwuest]

These are fluorescent images of D. hartmeyerorum's yellow trichromes aka "runway lights" taken with a laser scanning confocal microscope.  There's been some speculation on what these's appendages are.  The images show DNA in blue, lipids and waxes in green and negatively charged sugars in red.  One thing that really surprised me was the dense  sphere of cell nuclei in these trichomes.  A lot of the cells were undergoing division.  I'm suspicious these trichomes may be vegetative buds

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[Dave Evans]

Care to elaborate some more?

[toddwuest]

Of course. A confocal microscope lets you optically section a sample to see what's inside. I stained a trichrome with three compounds, a blue compound that labels dna, a green one that labels lipids and waxes, and a red stain that sticks to certain sugars.

I was wondering whether they're empty bubbles of fun, or if they had some structure that could shed light on their function. Turns out that they're not empty.  The center has a dense cluster of cell nuclei and a lot them were dividing.  Points inside the trichrome had what looked like little buds sprouting (Next pics, 2 and 3).   I got the impression that I was seeing little plantlets.  But I'll have to do some tests to see if that's accurate

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[Mel]

Very interesting!!! Keep us posted on your findings!!