Review: X-ray fluorescence microscopy imaging (Plant Physiol.)

Kopittke et al. review the use of synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence microscopy as a tool to quantify and localize diverse elements in plants. The authors describe how this method can be used to study nutrients in plants and human foods, as well as metal hyperaccumulating plants, and toxic metal(oid) accumulation. Future applications might include the use of metals as molecular tags as an imaging method, and imaging of nanoparticles. The authors also describe how advances in optics and electronics have improved the speed, sensitivity and resolution of X-ray fluorescence microscopy and hence the insights it can provide. They also observe that access to synchrotron facilities is a problem, and that currently, data collected is not routinely deposited into public databases. (Summary by Mary Williams) Plant Physiol: 10.1104/pp.18.00759