Protoplasts are plant cells that have had their cell walls enzymatically removed. Isolation of protoplasts from different plant tissues was first reported more than 40 years ago 1 and has since been adapted to study a variety of cellular processes, such as subcellular localization of proteins, isolation of intact organelles and targeted gene-inactivation by double stranded RNA interference (RNAi) 2-5. Most of the protoplast isolation protocols use leaf tissues of mature Arabidopsis (e.g. 35-day-old plants) 2-4. We modified existing protocols by employing 14-day-old Arabidopsis seedlings. In this procedure, one gram of 14-day-old seedlings yielded 5 106-107 protoplasts that remain intact at least 96 hours. The yield of protoplasts from seedlings is comparable with preparations from leaves of mature Arabidopsis, but instead of 35-36 days, isolation of protoplasts is completed in 15 days. This allows decreasing the time and growth chamber space that are required for isolating protoplasts when mature plants are used, and expedites the downstream studies that require intact protoplasts.
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