title: Imaging of polysaccharides in the tomato cell wall with Raman microspectroscopy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The primary cell wall of fruits and vegetables is a structure mainly composed of polysaccharides (pectins, hemicelluloses, cellulose). Polysaccharides are assembled into a network and linked together. It is thought that the percentage of components and of plant cell wall has an important influence on mechanical properties of fruits and vegetables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study the Raman microspectroscopy technique was introduced to the visualization of the distribution of polysaccharides in cell wall of fruit. The methodology of the sample preparation, the measurement using Raman microscope and multivariate image analysis are discussed. Single band imaging (for preliminary analysis) and multivariate image analysis methods (principal component analysis and multivariate curve resolution) were used for the identification and localization of the components in the primary cell wall.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Raman microspectroscopy supported by multivariate image analysis methods is useful in distinguishing cellulose and pectins in the cell wall in tomatoes. It presents how the localization of biopolymers was possible with minimally prepared samples.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Doswiadczalna 4, 20-290 Lublin, Poland.
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chylińska
authors.affiliation: Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Doswiadczalna 4, 20-290 Lublin, Poland.
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Szymańska-Chargot
authors.affiliation: Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Doswiadczalna 4, 20-290 Lublin, Poland.
authors.forename: Artur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zdunek
keywords: MCR; PCA; Plant cell wall; Polysaccharides; Raman imaging