Whole-mount smFISH allows combining RNA and protein quantification at cellular and subcellular resolution

Abstract

Multicellular organisms result from complex developmental processes largely orchestrated through the quantitative spatiotemporal regulation of gene expression. Yet, obtaining absolute counts of mRNAs at a 3-dimensional resolution remains challenging, especially in plants, due to high levels of tissue autofluorescence that prevent the detection of diffraction-limited fluorescent spots. In situ hybridization methods based on amplification cycles have recently emerged, but they are laborious and often lead to quantification biases. In this article, we present a simple method based on single molecule RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization (smFISH) to visualize and count the number of mRNA molecules in several intact plant tissues. In addition, with the use of fluorescent protein reporters, our method also enables simultaneous detection of mRNA and protein quantity, as well as subcellular distribution, in single cells. With this method, research in plants can now fully explore the benefits of the quantitative analysis of transcription and protein levels at cellular and subcellular resolution in plant tissues.