Celery Cross-Sections
These images were taken immediately after I received my equipment. I was so excited to test it out that I didn't wait to set up the camera software!
Procedure
- Specimen — Apium graveolens var. dulce, or common celery from the grocery store. This sample was taken from a younger shoot. As a member of the Apiaceae family, it is related to carrots, parsley, coriander, and fennel.
- Sectioning — The RapidTome 3D printed microtome was used to section stem tissue.
- Photography Equipment — The MD500A microscope lens camera was used, but in my haste I used my laptop's camera software instead of AmScope's to capture the images. I would not recommend this, as it resulted in blurry images with odd color grading.
- Equipment Notes — This AmScope B120 and MD500A lens camera were intuitive and easy to use. The microscopes I learned on were older models, but I was able to figure this system out easily.
- Tips and tricks — The RapidTome made taking these sections much easier, but the sections stuck to the blade. The collection container on the RapidTome was not necessary, at least for sections with this amount of moisture. Forceps were very helpful!
Observations
- Vascular Bundles — The first features I wanted to look for were the vascular bundles, since their distinctive appearance would be a good refresher to tissue identification and microscopy. Without the use of stains and with the poor image quality, the phloem and xylem are less distinct from each other, but I could observe a few indications of the type of bundle. I could identify the xylem by the thickened cell walls and wider cell diameter. The phloem, which had very small cell diameters compared to both the xylem and the surrounding parenchyma, was abaxial to the xylem. This led me to conclude the celery had collateral vascular bundles (Crang et al., 2018, pp. 374-375).
- Collenchyma — I don't get to see collenchyma tissue often! Once again, the poor image quality made it difficult to discern the variations in cell wall thickening. I was still able to see thickened corners in these cells, and determined this section to have angular collenchyma (Crang et al., 2018, pp. 190-191).
Areas of Improvement
The most significant barrier I encountered was due to the poor image quality. For the next session, I want to practice using the AmScope camera software to see if that will improve the clarity of my images.