homebotanik  AG Van Bel

Text and images are subject to copyright by the American Society of Plant Physiologists and are reprinted with permission. The original text and photographs have appeared in The Plant Cell 10, 35-50 (1998) under the title: "Sieve tubes in action" by Michael Knoblauch and Aart.J.E. van Bel, Institut für Allgemeine Botanik, Senckenbergstrasse 17, 35390 Giessen, Germany. Additional time scans give information about the laser-induced structural changes in the sieve elements.
Aart.v.Bel@bot1.bio.uni-giessen.de
Michael.Knoblauch@bot1.bio.uni-giessen.de

Figure 1 : CLSM images of sieve elements in tissue slices

Figure 2 : Reconstruction of the Structure of sieve elements exposed to different degrees and forms of injury.

Figure 3 : In situ observation of functional sieve elements in intact plants.

Figure 4 : CLSM-images of living actually translocating sieve elements

Figure 5 : Double stains of living actually translocating sieve elements.

Figure 6 : Response of actually translocating sieve elements to intense laser light

Figure 7 : Reaction of intact sieve elements to injury incurred by a "medium tip" microelectrode.

Figure 8 : Reaction of intact sieve elements to injury incurred by a "small tip" microelectrode.

Figure 9 : Reaction of intact sieve elements to injury incurred by a "coarse tip" microelectrode.

Figure 10 : Reconstruction of the in vivo sieve element structure in Vicia faba.

Additional time scans (movies)

This film shows a time scan of the reaction of sieve elements to intense laser light (see for further specification of the laser irradiation and a precise description of the events, legend of figure 6 and in Knoblauch and Van Bel, The Plant Cell 10, 35-50, 1998). The reaction probably results from the heat produced by the laser beam in confocal laser scanning microscopy.

short movie 275 KB

long movie 1.5 MB

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