A METHOD FOR CRYOSECTIONING OF PLANT ROOTS FOR PROTON MICROPROBE ANALYSIS

Abstract

By building up a cryo-preparation laboratory a method was developed which allows us to prepare cryo sections of fully differentiated plant-root material, according to the requirements of the proton microprobe. Since cryo-preparation is the only possible method delivering reliable elemental distributions, this step was a fundamental for all our further investigations in plant root physiology. As an example, PIXE-investigations of a root section of a heavy metal hyper-accumulating plant Brassica juncea L. will be presented.