Other than doing it by hand, can you please recommend a precise way to cut (longitudinally and horizontally) plant root tissue around a bending zone.
As in the image, I want to separate 6 sectors (concave bending zone, above and below it, and opposite convex zones).
Thank you.
I think you answered your own question: do it by hand.
You haven't specified a number of factors that will affect the ability to cut precisely with any means:
- What diameter are the roots?
- How hard/woody/rigid are they, vs soft/pliable/fragile? Old/mature or fresh?
- Are they grown in solution or soil? Solution-grown is easy to keep moist and prevent drying, while soil requires removing particles and risks damaging fine roots (
Thanks Matthew!
We work on roots of poplar, grown on perlite for a couple of months, so quite young and flexible maybe with a diameter of < 5 cm.
We want to understand the bending stress sensing in each sector using proteomics, that's why I want to do the cut with the maximum possible accuracy, and have "uncontaminated" cuts of each sector.
5 cm diameter roots in a few months! You could solve global carbon emissions with that kind of biomass accumulation!
If embedded in paraffin, I reckon you could excise pieces by hand, maybe with a tiny woodworking jig or clamp to hold the pieces of root while you slice longitudinally with a scalpel.
As it is for proteomics, maybe freezing (liquid nitrogen) would make the roots easier to handle and you wouldn't lose compounds by evaporation/oxidation etc.
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