Laser-assisted thermal-expansion microinjection and its applications

Abstract

Microinjection has been widely used by researches in the cell biology field. However, conventional microinjection methods are not suitable for plant cells because the plant cells have high turgor pressure which often causes influx of the cytoplasm into a glass needle. This phenomenon results in needle clogging. Our novel microinjection method, laser-assisted thermal-expansion microinjection (LTM) can generate higher pressure by thermal expansion of laser absorbent. By LTM method, we can inject materials into not only plant cells but also various types targets including budding yeast, nuclei and organelles without clogging a needle. In this review article, we summarize the principle and applications of LTM method.