Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0242247
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) High resolution microscopy to evaluate the efficiency of surface sterilization of Zea Mays seeds
Author Davoudpour, Y.; Schmidt, M.; Calabrese, F.; Richnow, H.H.; Musat, N.
Source Titel PLOS ONE
Year 2020
Department ISOBIO
Volume 15
Issue 11
Page From e0242247
Language englisch
UFZ wide themes ProVIS;
Abstract Surface sterilization of seeds is a key step in providing microorganisms-free seeds for numerous applications like understanding the role of seed-borne microorganisms in plant development, studying microbial cells-plant interactions by inoculating model microorganisms in a simplified system or selective cultivation of seed endobionts. However applying efficient treatment for surface sterilization of seeds without affecting the plant growth is not an easy task. In this study we aimed to provide an efficient surface sterilization treatment for maize seeds using i) hydrogen peroxide (HP), ii) sodium hypochlorite (SH) and iii) ethanol-sodium hypochlorite (EtOH-SH) under stirring (st) and vacuum-stirring (va-st) conditions. We used fluorescence microscopy and ultra-high resolution Helium Ion Microscopy (HIM) as powerful imaging approaches in combination with macroscopic techniques to visualize, quantify and evaluate the efficiency of seed sterilization, quality of root germination, seedlings and root hair development as well as the presence or absence of microorganisms on the root surface. Our results showed a strong reduction in microbial cell numbers of 4 orders of magnitude after the EtOH-SH treatments. Moreover, seeds exposed to EtOH-SH treatments displayed the lowest percentage of microbial growth (50%) and the highest percentage of germinated seeds (100%) compared to other sterilization treatments. HIM imaging proved the absence of microbial cells on the roots grown from seeds exposed to EtOH-SH treatments. Moreover, root hair development seemed not to be affected by any of the sterilization treatments. Our findings demonstrated that EtOH-SH treatments are significantly reducing the abundance of microbial cells from the surface of maize seeds and can be used with high confidence in future studies.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=23952
Davoudpour, Y., Schmidt, M., Calabrese, F., Richnow, H.H., Musat, N. (2020):
High resolution microscopy to evaluate the efficiency of surface sterilization of Zea Mays seeds
PLOS One 15 (11), e0242247 10.1371/journal.pone.0242247