Electron Probe Microanalysis of Potassium and Chloride in Freeze-Substituted Leaf Sections of Zea Mays

Abstract

Small sections of leaves were floated on distilled water under either light or dark conditions, and were freeze-substituted in a 1 % solution of osmium tetroxide in acetone at -78°C followed by embedding in an epoxy resin. Approximately I-11m-thick sections were cut using a dry diamond knife and examined by scanning transmission electron microscopy. The relative concentrations of potassium and chloride in subcellular compartments were determined using an energy dispersive X-ray analyser. The concentration of sodium in the leaf (1·7 m-equivjkg of wet tissue) was too low to be detected by this method. The spatial resolution of this technique was sufficient to distinguish between concentrations in the chloroplasts, cytoplasm, vacuole, and nuclei. The concentration of chloride in stomata and some other epidermal cells was very much higher than in either mesophyll or bundle sheath cells. The potassium concentration in some vascular cells was at least two- to threefold higher than that in mesophyll or bundle sheath cells. The Cl : K ratio in mesophyll and bundle sheath cells resembled that in the solution (0 ·10) used for growing the plants. The concentration of chloride in the "free" cytoplasm of mesophyll cells was always very low. Significant differences were found in the "ion" relations of mesophyll and bundle sheath cells. Whereas the ratio of potassium concentration between the vacuole and chloroplasts of mesophyll cells was high (1 ·19) in the light and low (0·65) in the dark, the opposite was true for bundle sheath cells-O· 65 and 0·86 respectively. The ratio of potassium concentration between the vacuo les of mesophyll and those of bundle sheath cells was 1 ·48 in the light, but only 0·76 in the dark. These concentration gradients are discussed in relation to a possible transfer of organic acid salts of potassium between these two cell types.