In plants, the response to stress, such as salinity, pathogen attack, drought, high concentration of metals, hyperthermia, and hypothermia, is usually accompanied by potassium ion (K+) leakage from the cytosol to the cell wall, mediated by plasma membrane cation conductivity. Stress-induced electrolyte leakage co-occurs with accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and calcium ions (Ca2+) and often results in programmed cell death (PCD). The development of X-ray and mass spectrometry (MS) based imaging techniques has enabled insight into the spatial tissue and cell-specific redistribution of major and trace elements during the stress response. In this chapter a workflow for sample preparation, imaging, and image analysis by X-ray and MS based techniques is presented.
Keywords: Environmental stress; Imaging; Ions; PIXE; Particle accelerator; Synchrotron; X-ray fluorescence.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.