The Plant Observatory - Cytology/Imaging

 
The establishment of the Cytology/Imaging part of the Plant Observatory of the Jean-Pierre Bourgin Institute stems back to the origins of the IJPB in the early 2000’s. The platform is housed in a recently renovated building of 1,000 m2 (B14) and involves 7 permanent INRAE staff members (3.8 FTE). It is under the joint responsibility of B. Dubreucq (DR2) and L. Gissot (IR1) for scientific and technical aspects respectively. It currently has more than 100 regular users. It hosts all cell imaging activities and equipment necessary for research conducted by the IJPB teams and their partners. The platform is organized into five workshops: cytogenetics, in situ hybridization, immunocytochemistry, microscopy and laser microdissection. Each workshop is under the responsibility of a specialized staff, who organizes the service, welcomes and trains internal and external users, prioritizes and traces the potential needs. All imaging and cytology techniques are developed on a large number of plant species including A. thaliana, Brachypodium, camelina, tomato, corn ...

Within the platform, permanent staff provides technical support, maintenance, management, training and supervision of users, and technology development. Frequent users are guided to autonomy after their initial training period. The PO-Imaging/Cytology platform is a first ranking regional microscopy facility and leader in France in plant biology. It was a pioneer in the development of new techniques for the study of plants, especially in the study of living cells (live meristem imaging, interaction between proteins by fluorescence anisotropy technique in plants for instance).