title: Using synchrotron X-ray fluorescence microprobes in the study of metal homeostasis in plants.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA. tracy.punshon@dartmouth.edu
authors.forename: Tracy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Punshon
authors.forename: Mary Lou
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Guerinot
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lanzirotti
mesh_terms: D005453:Fluorescence; D006706:Homeostasis; D008670:Metals / Q000378:metabolism*; D015335:Molecular Probes / Q000378:metabolism*; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism*; D017356:Synchrotrons; D014965:X-Rays
chemical_list: D008670:Metals; D015335:Molecular Probes