Nickel distribution in Stackhousia tryonii shown by synchrotron X-ray fluorescence micro-computed tomography
Antony van der Ent
A * , Kathryn M. Spiers B , Dennis Brueckner B C D and Peter D. Erskine A
A Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation, Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, Qld 4072, Australia.
B Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, 22607 Hamburg, Germany.
C Department of Physics, Universität Hamburg, 20355 Hamburg, Germany.
D Faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany.
Australian Journal of Botany 70(4) 304-310 https://doi.org/10.1071/BT22012
Submitted: 4 February 2022 Accepted: 30 May 2022 Published: 13 July 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Context: Hyperaccumulator plants are of considerable interest for their extreme physiology. Stackhousia tryonii is a nickel (Ni) hyperaccumulator plant endemic to ultramafic outcrops in Queensland (Australia) capable of attaining up to 41 300 μg g−1 foliar Ni.
Aims: This study sought to elucidate the distribution of Ni in S. tryonii by using synchrotron X-ray fluorescence micro-computed tomography (XFM-CT), complemented with elemental maps acquired from physically sectioned plant organs. Its Ni-enriched cylindrical photosynthetic stems make them particularly well suited samples for synchrotron XFM-CT.
Methods: XFM-CT enables ‘virtual sectioning’ of a sample, avoiding artefacts arising from physical sample preparation. The method can be used on fresh samples that are frozen during the analysis, which preserves ‘life-like’ conditions by limiting radiation damage. It also prevents/minimises other artefacts.
Key results: The results showed that Ni is mainly concentrated in the apoplastic space surrounding epidermal cells, and in some epidermal cell vacuoles. This finding is significant because this ‘free’ solute Ni is likely to be lost during physical sectioning.
Conclusions and implications: This case study has highlighted the utility of the XFM-CT approach for visualising metals within intact plant organs, which may be used across the plant sciences.
Keywords: apoplastic space, artefact, hyperaccumulator, nickel, Queensland, sectioning, synchrotron, X-ray fluorescence micro-computed tomography.
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