Etiolated Hypocotyls: A New System to Study the Impact of Abiotic Stress on Cell Expansion.

Abiotic stress impacts a wide range of plant developmental processes. Among them, cell expansion is particularly important given its contribution to plant growth and morphogenesis. Here, we describe a new phenotypic system to quantify accurately the impact of different sources of abiotic stress on the cell's capacity to expand. This approach monitors hypocotyl growth in Arabidopsis thaliana etiolated seedlings, as in the dark this embryonic organ is known to grow solely by expanding its cells, without cell division.