Visualizing Cryoprotectant Permeation and Location Confined in Plant Cells and Tissues

Abstract:  Look out your window and you might see a conifer tree covered with snow. Ever wonder how the needles stay alive all winter long as the temperature dips below freezing? Like pine trees, some organisms possess molecules that naturally enable them to withstand cold. Scientists have copied nature to develop methodology to cryopreserve biological materials, storing them at low temperatures for future use. The first step in any cryopreservation protocol involves dosing the sample with a cocktail of cryopreservation agents, molecules that help them stay viable. Although quite a bit is known about what cryopreservation agents work for some samples, the mixtures do not always work and not much is known about why or how they work. The Levinger group has embarked on a project enlisting chemistry and physics applied to biology to explore how plant cryopreservation agents interact with plant cells and tissues. We follow cryoprotecting molecules using coherent Raman microscopy as they interact with samples to measure how and why they work to protect materials at low temperatures.