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[Jon Moulton]

Microinjection of reproducible doses of fluid into plant cells has been difficult due to their turgor pressure. A group in Japan solved this by loading a Morpholino oligo solution into a glass microinjection needle with a plug of laser-absorbent material in the shaft of the needle behind the oligo solution. When the plug was heated with a laser it expanded and drove the Morpholino solution into the plant cell against the turgor pressure. As far as I know this is the first paper reporting a Morpholino knockdown in a plant.

Okuda S, Tsutsui H, Shiina K, Sprunck S, Takeuchi H, Yui R, Kasahara RD, Hamamura Y, Mizukami A, Susaki D, Kawano N, Sakakibara T, Namiki S, Itoh K, Otsuka K, Matsuzaki M, Nozaki H, Kuroiwa T, Nakano A, Kanaoka MM, Dresselhaus T, Sasaki N, Higashiyama T. Defensin-like polypeptide LUREs are pollen tube attractants secreted from synergid cells. Nature. 2009 Mar 19;458(7236):357-61.