Summary Sexual reproduction in flowering plants depends on the fitness of the male gametophyte during fertilization. Because pollen development is highly sensitive to hot and cold temperature extremes, reliable methods to evaluate pollen viability are important for research into improving reproductive heat stress (HS) tolerance. Here, we describe an approach to rapidly evaluate pollen viability using a reactive oxygen species (ROS) probe dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (i.e. H2DCFDA‐staining) coupled with flow cytometry. In using flow cytometry to analyze mature pollen harvested from Arabidopsis and tomato flowers, we discovered that pollen distributed bimodally into ‘low‐ROS’ and ‘high‐ROS’ subpopulations. Pollen germination assays following fluorescence‐activated cell sorting revealed that the high‐ROS pollen germinated with a frequency that was 35‐fold higher than the low‐ROS pollen, supporting a model in which a significant fraction of a flower's pollen remains in a low metabolic or dormant state even after hydration. The ability to use flow cytometry to quantify ROS dynamics within a large pollen population was shown by dose‐dependent alterations in DCF‐fluorescence in response to oxidative stress or antioxidant treatments. HS treatments (35°C) increased ROS levels, which correlated with a ~60% reduction in pollen germination. These results demonstrate the potential of using flow cytometry‐based approaches to investigate metabolic changes during stress responses in pollen.

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Cell cycle research greatly relies on synchronization of proliferating cells. However, effective synchronization of mammalian cells is commonly achieved by long exposure to one or more cell cycle blocking agents. These chemicals are, by definition, hazardous (some more than others), pose uneven cell cycle arrest, thus introducing unwanted variables. The challenge of synchronizing proliferating cells in G1 is even greater; this process typically involves the release of drug-arrested cells into the cycle that follows, a heterogeneous process that can truly limit synchronization. Moreover, drug-based synchronization decouples the cell cycle from cell growth in ways that are understudied and intolerable for those who investigate the relationship between these two processes. In this study we showed that cell size, as approximated by a single light-scatter parameter available in all standard sorters, can be used for synchronizing proliferating mammalian cells in G1 with minimal or no risk to either the cell cycle or cell growth. The power and selectivity of our method are demonstrated for human HEK293 cells that, despite their many advantages, are suboptimal for synchronization, let alone in G1. Our approach is readily available, simple, fast, and inexpensive; it is independent of any drugs or dyes, and nonhazardous. These properties are relevant for the study of the mammalian cell cycle, specifically in the context of G1 and cell growth.

Pdots are a new type of nanoparticle which exhibit strong potential for future applications in biophysics and cell biology. They are composed of organic chromophoric polymers, whose surfaces can be modified with different amphiphilic polymers, such as PEGylated lipids to make them very stable as colloids in water. We demonstrate in this manuscript that the lipid nano-coating around the Pdot can bind very efficiently to amphiphilic molecules, such as photosensitizers e.g. meso-tetrahydroxyphenylchlorin (mTHPC). As a result the sensitizer is brought into very close contact with the cores of the Pdots, and resonance energy transfer from the core to the sensitizer is very efficient; in some cases it is close to 1. We show the spectroscopic properties of two types of Pdots; their sizes, which are in the 13-47 nm range, depend on the kind of polymer and the length of the PEGylated lipid chains that wrap it. We measured the efficiency of FRET by investigating the decrease in donor intensity or its lifetime upon binding with mTHPC. We also show the relative yields of singlet oxygen that are obtained via two pathways: by exciting the Pdots which transfer the energy to the attached sensitizer, or by exciting the sensitizer directly. This methodology could be used to enhance the use of a photosensitizer by employing both pathways in parallel.

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