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This is a time-lapse movie of microtubules (visualized using a GFP-Tubulin reporter) in a living plant cell. Shown is a cotyledon epidermal cell from an Arabidopsis thaliana plant. Note the microtubules display dynamic instability---stochastic switching between periods of growth and shortening as tubulin subunits are added or removed from the microtubule. The movie is played at 10 frames per second, or 50x real time. The bar represents 10 microns (1/100th of a mm). For more, visit http://www.botany.ubc.ca/wasteneys/.

The plus end binding protein EB1 (End-Binding 1) primarily decorates growing microtubule plus ends when fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP). We can use this as a tool to determine the polarity of different microtubule arrays. Shown here is the interphase cortical array, which consists of microtubules of mixed orientation, that are anchored along their lengths to the cell cortex. The movie is a time-lapse speeded up 35x real time, and shows images captured at 5 second intervals with an epifluorescence microscope. The cell is a cotyledon epidermal cell from an arabidopsis thaliana seedling. The bar is 5 microns.

This is a time-lapse movie of microtubules (visualized using a GFP-Tubulin reporter) in the Arabidopsis thaliana mutant mor1-1. Shown is a cotyledon epidermal cell. Colored dots mark the dynamic plus ends. Notably, microtubule dynamics are dampened in the mor1-1 mutant at restrictive temperature (31 degrees C). The movie is played at 7 frames per second, or 56x real time. The bar represents 10 microns (1/100th of a mm). For more, visit http://www.botany.ubc.ca/wasteneys/.

Germination is a growth of a seed into a seedling. The first structure to grow is the root down to anchor the young plant and to absorb water from the soil then the shoot emerged. Bean seed has two seed leaves (cotyledons) which provide seedling with food until the first leaves are formed.

Morning Glory (center) and Pole Bean (sides) seeds germinating and sprouting on a windowsill, over a 14-day period. Time-lapse footage was captured at a rate of one frame every hour, with a Casio QV-8000SX camera in time-lapse mode. The morning glory seeds get off to a quick start, but enter a semi-dormant phase once the cotyledons unfold. Meanwhile, the bean seeds have been producing roots like mad, and push their way out of the ground after few days. After that, it's a mad dash for the sun. Also somewhat interesting is the potted ivy in the background. It was transplanted right at the beginning of the experiment, and you can see it settling into the new pot over the first few days, before slowing down and producing new leaves.

Pines have four types of leaves: 1. Seed leaves (cotyledons) on seedlings, borne in a whorl of 4-24. 2. Juvenile leaves, which follow immediately on seedlings and young plants, 2-6 cm long, single, green or often blue-green, and arranged spirally on the shoot. These are produced for six months to five years, rarely longer (and also produced later in life after injury in some pines). 3. Scale leaves, similar to bud scales, small, brown and non-photosynthetic, and arranged spirally like the juvenile leaves. 4. Needles, the adult leaves, which are green (photosynthetic), bundled in clusters (fascicles) of (1-) 2-5 (-6) needles together, each fascicle produced from a small bud on a dwarf shoot in the axil of a scale leaf. These bud scales often remain on the fascicle as a basal sheath. The needles persist for 1.5-40 years, depending on species. If a shoot is damaged (e.g. eaten by an animal), the needle fascicles just below the damage will generate a bud which can then replace the lost growth.