1. Introduction of Soft X-Ray Spectromicroscopy as an Advanced Technique for Plant Biopolymers Research
- Author
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Rachid Lahlali, Colleen R. Christensen, Cédric Gaillard, Lisa M. Blair, S. Shea Miller, Vijayan Perumal, Adam P. Hitchcock, Chithra Karunakaran, Canadian Light Source, University of Saskatchewan [Saskatoon] (U of S), National Research Council of Canada (NRC), Unité de recherche sur les Biopolymères, Interactions Assemblages (BIA), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food [Ottawa] (AAFC), McMaster University, and The research described in this paper was performed at the Canadian Light Source Inc., and the Advanced Light Source. The Canadian Light Source Inc. is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), National Research Council Canada (NRC), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the University of Saskatchewan. The Advanced Light Source is supported by the Director, Office of Energy Research, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences Division of the U.S. Department of Energy, under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.
- Subjects
plant stem ,Absorption spectroscopy ,Lens culinaris ,lcsh:Medicine ,lignin ,soft X ray absorption spectromicroscopy ,Infrared spectroscopy ,Nanotechnology ,image display ,engineering.material ,lentil ,Biopolymers ,sensitivity analysis ,biopolymer ,process optimization ,Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared ,[SDV.IDA]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Food engineering ,Microscopy ,[SPI.GPROC]Engineering Sciences [physics]/Chemical and Process Engineering ,lcsh:Science ,infrared spectroscopy ,intermethod comparison ,Absorption (electromagnetic radiation) ,Spectroscopy ,plant cell ,X-ray absorption spectroscopy ,Multidisciplinary ,Plant Stems ,lcsh:R ,Resolution (electron density) ,hemicellulose ,Plants ,cellulose ,arabinoxylan ,X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy ,phase transition ,X ray absorption spectroscopy ,microscopy ,engineering ,polygalacturonic acid ,Lens Plant ,lcsh:Q ,Biopolymer ,Research Article ,amino acid substitution - Abstract
International audience; Soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy coupled with nano-scale microscopy has been widely used in material science, environmental science, and physical sciences. In this work, the advantages of soft X-ray absorption spectromicroscopy for plant biopolymer research were demonstrated by determining the chemical sensitivity of the technique to identify common plant biopolymers and to map the distributions of biopolymers in plant samples. The chemical sensitivity of soft X-ray spectroscopy to study biopolymers was determined by recording the spectra of common plant biopolymers using soft X-ray and Fourier Transform mid Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy techniques. The soft X-ray spectra of lignin, cellulose, and polygalacturonic acid have distinct spectral features. However, there were no distinct differences between cellulose and hemicellulose spectra. Mid infrared spectra of all biopolymers were unique and there were differences between the spectra of water soluble and insoluble xylans. The advantage of nano-scale spatial resolution exploited using soft X-ray spectromicroscopy for plant biopolymer research was demonstrated by mapping plant cell wall biopolymers in a lentil stem section and compared with the FT-IR spectromicroscopy data from the same sample. The soft X-ray spectromicroscopy enables mapping of biopolymers at the sub-cellular (similar to 30 nm) resolution whereas, the limited spatial resolution in the micron scale range in the FT-IR spectromicroscopy made it difficult to identify the localized distribution of biopolymers. The advantages and limitations of soft X-ray and FT-IR spectromicroscopy techniques for biopolymer research are also discussed.
- Published
- 2015