Simple plunge freezing applied to plant tissues for capturing the ultrastructure close to the living state.

In order to observe the ultrastructure close to the living state, simple plunge freezing in liquid propane was applied to plant tissues. The method yielded a well-preserved ultrastructure to a depth of up to 40 microm from the surface of the young pea leaves, which were used as the specimen. Within the well-frozen area all membranes appeared smooth and the ultrastructural details of each organelle were similar to those obtained by high-pressure freezing. Several physical connections between the membranes were visualized. The relative simplicity and the satisfactory freezing performance of the method render it suitable for capturing the features of actively functioning cells in routine ultrastructural studies.