Visualising Differential Growth of Arabidopsis Epidermal Pavement Cells Using Thin Plate Spline Analysis

Abstract

Epidermal pavement cells in Arabidopsis leaves and cotyledons develop from relatively simple shapes to form complex cells that have multiple undulations of varying sizes. Analyzing the growth of individual parts of the cell wall boundaries over time is essential to understanding how pavement cells develop their complex shapes. Thin plate spline analysis is a method for visualizing the change of size and shape of objects through warping or deformation of a regular mesh and can be applied to understand cell wall growth. This protocol describes the application of thin plate spline analysis to visualize the development of individual pavement cells over time.