Analyses of Plant Leaf Cell Size, Density and Number, as Well as Trichome Number Using Cell Counter Plugin

Materials and Reagents

1. Dissected rosette leaves from Arabidopsis
   
2. Petals from the well-opened flower
   
3. Ethanol (Sigma-Aldrich, Catalog number: 459844 )
   
4. Chloral hydrate (Sigma-Aldrich, Catalog number: 15307 )
   
5. Glycerol (Sigma-Aldrich, Catalog number: G7757 )
   
6. Washing solution (see Recipes)
   
7. Clearing solution (see Recipes)
   

Equipment

1. Stereomicroscope (Zeiss, model: Zeiss Stemi 2000 )
   
2. Digital Cameral (Canon, model: Canon powershot S5IS )
   
3. Glass slides and thin coverslips
   
4. Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscope (Nikon Corporation, model: ECLIPSE 80i) with CCD camera (Nikon Corporation, model: DS-Ri1 )
   

Software

1. Image J software (http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/index.html).
   
2. Cell Counter plugin (http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/plugins/cell-counter.html)
   

Procedure