The Application of Laser Microdissection to Profiling Fungal Pathogen Gene Expression in planta

Laser microdissection (LM) of plant tissues infected with a fluorescent protein-tagged fungus is a useful method for obtaining samples highly enriched in fungal RNA for downstream analysis such as hybridization to a microarray. This paper outlines the requirements for successful LM of infected tissues and details a set of protocols for (1) preparing and sectioning infected tissue samples under conditions that preserve both RNA integrity and cytological features; (2) capturing fungal structures via LM; and (3) extraction and amplification of transcripts for further analysis.