Whole-Mount In Situ Hybridization in Plants

Messenger RNA in situ hybridization (ISH) can be defined as a technique for locating specific transcripts. This powerful technique opened the way to study the temporal and spatial patterns of expression of animal and plant genes in a morphological context and on a cell-to-cell basis. Most in situ protocols are based on the hybridtzation of a labeled DNA or RNA probe to tissue sections in which mRNA IS preserved. Radioactive as well as nonradioactive in situ protocols have been applied with success for various tissues originating from plants and animals (1 –5 ).