Skip Navigation


AOBPreview originally published online on January 31, 2009
Annals of Botany 2009 103(5):665-672; doi:10.1093/aob/mcn264
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
103/5/665    most recent
mcn264v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Related articles in Ann Bot
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Punshon, T.
Right arrow Articles by Lanzirotti, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Punshon, T.
Right arrow Articles by Lanzirotti, A.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Punshon, T.
Right arrow Articles by Lanzirotti, A.
Related Collections
Right arrow Arabidopsis
Right arrow Nutrition
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?


© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

BOTANICAL BRIEFING

Using synchrotron X-ray fluorescence microprobes in the study of metal homeostasis in plants

Tracy Punshon1,*, Mary Lou Guerinot1 and Antonio Lanzirotti2

1 Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
2 Consortium for Advanced Radiation Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA

* For correspondence. E-mail tracy.punshon{at}dartmouth.edu

Received: 4 August 2008    Returned for revision: 27 August 2008    Accepted: 8 December 2008    Published electronically: 31 January 2009

Background and Aims: This Botanical Briefing reviews the application of synchrotron X-ray fluorescence (SXRF) microprobes to the plant sciences; how the technique has expanded our knowledge of metal(loid) homeostasis, and how it can be used in the future.

Scope: The use of SXRF microspectroscopy and microtomography in research on metal homeostasis in plants is reviewed. The potential use of SXRF as part of the ionomics toolbox, where it is able to provide fundamental information on the way that plants control metal homeostasis, is recommended.

Conclusions: SXRF is one of the few techniques capable of providing spatially resolved in-vivo metal abundance data on a sub-micrometre scale, without the need for chemical fixation, coating, drying or even sectioning of samples. This gives researchers the ability to uncover mechanisms of plant metal homeostasis that can potentially be obscured by the artefacts of sample preparation. Further, new generation synchrotrons with smaller beam sizes and more sensitive detection systems will allow for the imaging of metal distribution within single living plant cells. Even greater advances in our understanding of metal homeostasis in plants can be gained by overcoming some of the practical boundaries that exist in the use of SXRF analysis.

Key words: Metal homeostasis, synchrotron X-ray fluorescence, SXRF, microspectroscopy, microtomography, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, XAS, ionomics, Arabidopsis thaliana, hyperaccumulator


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?

Related articles in Ann Bot:

ContentSnapshots

Ann Bot 2009 103: i. [Extract] [Full Text]  



This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Plant Cell PhysiolHome page
R. Rellan-Alvarez, J. Giner-Martinez-Sierra, J. Orduna, I. Orera, J. A. Rodriguez-Castrillon, J. I. Garcia-Alonso, J. Abadia, and A. Alvarez-Fernandez
Identification of a Tri-Iron(III), Tri-Citrate Complex in the Xylem Sap of Iron-Deficient Tomato Resupplied with Iron: New Insights into Plant Iron Long-Distance Transport
Plant Cell Physiol., January 1, 2010; 51(1): 91 - 102.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.