Live Imaging of Arabidopsis Axillary Meristems.

Axillary meristems (AMs) are established postembryonically at the leaf axils and can develop into lateral branches. The initiation of AMs establishes new growth axis and is of primary importance for understanding plant development. Understanding plant development requires live imaging of morphogenesis and gene expression. However, AMs are embedded in the leaf axil, making it challenging to perform live imaging. In this chapter, we describe how to prepare and culture Arabidopsis thaliana leaves in vitro, to perform one-time or time-lapse imaging of AM initiation with a confocal microscope.