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Autophagy is the main catabolic process in eukaryotes and plays a key role in cell homeostasis. In vivo measurement of autophagic activity (flux) is a powerful tool for investigating the role of the pathway in organism development and stress responses. Here we describe a significant optimization of the tandem tag assay for detection of autophagic flux in planta in epidermal root cells of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings. The tandem tag consists of TagRFP and mWasabi fluorescent proteins fused to ATG8a, and is expressed in wildtype or autophagy-deficient backgrounds to obtain reporter and control lines, respectively. Upon autophagy activation, the TagRFP-mWasabi-ATG8a fusion protein is incorporated into autophagosomes and delivered to the lytic vacuole. Ratiometric quantification of the low pH-tolerant TagRFP and low pH-sensitive mWasabi fluorescence in the vacuoles of control and reporter lines allows for a reliable estimation of autophagic activity. We provide a step by step protocol for plant growth, imaging and semi-automated data analysis. The protocol presents a rapid and robust method that can be applied for any studies requiring in planta quantification of autophagic flux.Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; initially named 2019-nCoV) is responsible for the recent coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the current standard method for diagnosis from patient samples. [https://www.selleckchem.com/products/syrosingopine-su-3118.html learn more] As PCR assays are prone to sequence mismatches due to mutations in the viral genome, it is important to verify the genomic variability at primer/probe binding regions periodically. This step-by-step protocol describes a bioinformatics approach for an extensive evaluation of the sequence variability within the primer/probe target regions of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. The protocol can be applied to any molecular diagnostic assay of choice using freely available software programs and the ready-to-use multiple sequence alignment (MSA) file provided. Graphic abstract Overview of the sequence tracing protocol. The figure was created using the Library of Science and Medical Illustrations from somersault1824 licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license (https//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). Video abstract https//youtu.be/M1lV1liWE9k.Lipid droplets (LDs) are neutral lipid aggregates surrounded by a phospholipid monolayer and specific proteins. In plants, they play a key role as energy source after seed germination, but are also formed in vegetative tissues in response to developmental or environmental conditions, where their functions are poorly understood. To elucidate these, it is essential to isolate LDs with good yields, while retaining their protein components. LD isolation protocols are based on their capacity to float after centrifugation in sucrose gradients. Early strategies using stringent conditions and LD-abundant plant tissues produced pure LDs where core proteins were identified. To identify more weakly bound LD proteins, recent protocols have used low stringency buffers, but carryover contaminants and low yields were often a problem. We have developed a sucrose gradient-based protocol to isolate LDs from Arabidopsis leaves, using Tween-20 and fresh tissue to increase yield. In both healthy and bacterially-infected Arabidopsis leaves, this protocol allowed to identify LD proteins that were later confirmed by microscopy analysis.Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus, an obligate predatory bacterium [i.e., bacteria that kill and feed on other bacteria (prey)], has the potential to be used as a probiotic for the disinfection of surfaces or for the treatment of bacterial infections. One option is to use this organism in combination with antimicrobials to potentiate the effectiveness of treatments. In order to make this approach feasible more has to be known about the ability of B. bacteriovorus to resist antibiotics itself. Standard assays to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) are not suitable for B. bacteriovorus, since the small size of this bacterium (0.25-0.35 by 0.5-2 μm) prevents scattering at OD600. Since these predatory bacteria require larger prey bacteria for growth (e.g., E. coli dimensions are 1 by 1-2 μm), the basis for the antimicrobial sensitivity assay described here is the reduction of the OD600 caused by prey lysis during growth. Previous studies on predatory bacteria resistance to antimicrobials employed methods that did not allow a direct comparison of antimicrobial resistance levels to those of other bacterial species. Here, we describe a procedure to determine B. bacteriovorus sensitivity to antimicrobials which can be compared to a reference organism tested as close as possible to the same experimental conditions. Briefly, minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of B. bacteriovorus are determined by measuring the reduction in absorbance at 600 nm of mixed predator/prey cultures in presence and absence of different antimicrobial concentrations. Of note, this method can be modified to obtain antimicrobial MIC values of other predatory bacteria, using different conditions, prey bacteria and/or antimicrobials.Plant lipid metabolism is a dynamic network where synthesis of essential membrane lipids overlaps with synthesis of valuable storage lipids (e.g., vegetable oils). Monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG) is a key component of the chloroplast membrane system required for photosynthesis and is produced by multiple pathways within the lipid metabolic network. The bioengineering of plants to enhance oil production can alter lipid metabolism in unexpected ways which may not be apparent by static quantification of lipids, but changes to lipid metabolic flux can be traced with isotopic labeling commonly with [14C]acetate. Because lipid classes such as MGDG are composed of many different molecular species, full analysis of metabolically labeled lipids requires separation and quantification of the individually labeled molecular species which is traditionally performed by thin layer chromatography. Here we present a reverse phase HPLC method for the separation of MGDG molecular species from tobacco leaves in under 35 min. The quantification of each 14C-labeled molecular species was accomplished by an in-line flow radio detector.