Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 107, Issue 36, Pages 15676-15680Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1001469107
Keywords
diatom; trace element distributions; X-ray fluorescence tomography
Categories
Funding
- International Synchrotron Access Program (ISAP)
- National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy
- ARC [DP0987422]
- National Institutes of Health (NIH) [5R21EB006134-02, P41 RR-01081]
- National Science Foundation (NSF) [OCE 0527059, OCE 0913080, OCE 0527062]
- U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences [DE-AC02-06CH11357]
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X-ray fluorescence tomography promises to map elemental distributions in unstained and unfixed biological specimens in three dimensions at high resolution and sensitivity, offering unparalleled insight in medical, biological, and environmental sciences. X-ray fluorescence tomography of biological specimens has been viewed as impractical-and perhaps even impossible for routine application- due to the large time required for scanning tomography and significant radiation dose delivered to the specimen during the imaging process. Here, we demonstrate submicron resolution X-ray fluorescence tomography of a whole unstained biological specimen, quantifying three-dimensional distributions of the elements Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu, and Zn in the freshwater diatom Cyclotella meneghiniana with 400-nm resolution, improving the spatial resolution by over an order of magnitude. The resulting maps faithfully reproduce cellular structure revealing unexpected patterns that may elucidate the role of metals in diatom biology and of diatoms in global element cycles. With anticipated improvements in data acquisition and detector sensitivity, such measurements could become routine in the near future.
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