We describe a user-optimized sample holder EasyClick for medium-sized plants that reduces root side movements and thus greatly extends the duration of live cell confocal microscopy. Preparation and mounting of the samples are key factors for successful live cell microscopy. To acquire biologically relevant data, it is necessary to minimize stress and avoid physical damage to plant tissues during the installation of the sample into the microscope. This is challenging, particularly when the whole plant is mounted as the living sample needs to be properly anchored in the microscopic system to obtain high-quality and high-resolution data. Here, we present a user-optimized sample holder EasyClick for live cell inverted confocal microscopic analysis of plant roots with diameters from 0.3 to 0.7 mm. The EasyClick holder was tested on an inverted confocal microscope using germinating plants of several cereals. Nevertheless, it can be directly used on other types of inverted microscopes from various producers and on different plant species. The EasyClick holder effectively restricts root lateral and vertical movements. This greatly improves the conditions for time-lapse microscopy of the samples of interest.

Centre of Plant Structural and Functional Genomics Institute of Experimental Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences Šlechtitelů 31 779 00 Olomouc Czech Republic

Department of Biomedical Engineering Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication Brno University of Technology Technická 3082 12 61600 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Cell Biology and Genetics Faculty of Science Palacký University 779 00 Olomouc Czech Republic

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