Visualizing Sodium Accumulation in Sweet Potato

CoroNa^TM Green AM (Life Technologies), which is a Na⁺-specific fluorescent dye, was used to detect the accumulation of Na⁺ in sweet potato root cells^{5 (link)}. The roots were collected after NaCl treatment and placed in a centrifuge tube containing fresh incubation solution (200 mM NaCl, 20 μM CoroNa^TM Green AM (Life Technologies), and 0.02% pluronic acid) for 2 h. Afterward, they were washed several times with distilled water. An Olympus BX63 epifluorescence microscope was subsequently used to visualize intracellular Na⁺ accumulation (as indicated by the green fluorescence). All images were taken using the same settings and exposure times to allow direct comparisons. Image-Pro Plus 6.0 software was used to quantify the relative fluorescence intensity in the different root zones.