Detection of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Gene Expression by In Situ Hybridization.
Bettina Hause and Natalia Requena (University of Karlsruhe) recently presented a new method for the preparation of mycorrhizal roots for the detection of fungal transcripts in the symbiosis. The elucidation of complex obligatory symbiotic interactions between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM fungi) and their host roots requires sophisticated molecular methods. To capture the dynamics of the interaction, cell-specific methods for gene expression analysis such as in situ hybridization are required that allow the localization of different transcript accumulations within tissues. Especially for the transcript analysis of those fungal symbiosis partners that cannot be genetically modified, a properly working hybridization technique is of great value. The in situ hybridisation approach presented by Hause and Requena illuminates all necessary steps, starting with the fixation, embedding and sectioning of the sample material, up to the hybridisation of the sections with suitable probes and the immunological detection of the RNA-RNA hybrids.
