Imaging and quantitative data acquisition of biological cell walls with Atomic Force Microscopy and Scanning Acoustic Microscopy
- Penn State
This chapter demonstrates the feasibility of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and High Frequency Scanning Acoustic Microscopy (HF-SAM) as tools to characterize biological tissues. Both the AFM and the SAM have shown to provide imaging (with different resolution) and quantitative elasticity measuring abilities. Plant cell walls with minimal disturbance and under conditions of their native state have been examined with these two kinds of microscopy. After descriptions of both the SAM and AFM, their special features and the typical sample preparation is discussed. The sample preparation is focused here on epidermal peels of onion scales and celery epidermis cells which were sectioned for the AFM to visualize the inner surface (closest to the plasma membrane) of the outer epidermal wall. The nm-wide cellulose microfibrils orientation and multilayer structure were clearly observed. The microfibril orientation and alignment tend to be more organized in older scales compared with younger scales. The onion epidermis cell wall was also used as a test analog to study cell wall elasticity by the AFM nanoindentation and the SAM V(z) feature. The novelty in this work was to demonstrate the capability of these two techniques to analyze isolated, single layered plant cell walls in their natural state. AFM nanoindentation was also used to probe the effects of Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), and calcium ion treatment to modify pectin networks in cell walls. The results suggest a significant modulus increase in the calcium ion treatment and a slight decrease in EDTA treatment. To complement the AFM measurements, the HF-SAM was used to obtain the V(z) signatures of the onion epidermis. These measurements were focused on documenting the effect of pectinase enzyme treatment. The results indicate a significant change in the V(z) signature curves with time into the enzyme treatment. Thus AFM and HF-SAM open the door to a systematic nondestructive structure and mechanical property study of complex biological cell walls. A unique feature of this approach is that both microscopes allow the biological samples to be examined in their natural fluid (water) environment.
- Research Organization:
- Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Lignocellulose Structure and Formation (CLSF)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0001090
- OSTI ID:
- 1158577
- Resource Relation:
- Related Information: Microscopy: Advances in Research and Education. A. Mendez-Vilas, ED. Microscopy Book Series Number 6. Volume 2: pages 161-172. ISBN: 978-84-942134-4-1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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