Selected Papers from the 1st International Plant Spectroscopy Conference

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2017) | Viewed by 24911

Special Issue Editors

Department of Chemistry, Umeå University, Linnaeus väg 6, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden
Interests: vibrational spectroscopy and microspectroscopy; hyperspectral imaging; multivariate data analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
INRA Pays de Loire, URBIA, CEDEX 03, BP 71627 44316 Nantes, France
Interests: hyperspectral imaging; hyperspectral and multivariate image analysis; fluorescence and vibrational microspectroscopy; plant cell wall
Institute for Biophysics, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), A-1190 Vienna, Austria
Interests: FT-IR and Raman microscopy; fluorescence microscopy; Raman imaging; multivariate data analysis; plant cell walls; wood, nut shells
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
INRA Pays de Loire, URBIA, CEDEX 03, BP 71627 44316 Nantes, France
Interests: plant cell walls; plant imaging; plant histology; chemical mapping of cell wall polymers

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The 1st International Conference on Plant Spectroscopy (http://www.conference.plantspec.org/) organized by the International Society for Plant Spectroscopy (www.plantspec.org) and the Vibrational Spectroscopy Core Facility at Umeå University (http://www.kbc.umu.se/english/visp/), will take place in Umeå, Sweden, 29–30 August, 2017.

The aim of conference is to bring spectroscopy to plant scientists and plant sciences to spectroscopists, and a broad range of topics and techniques will be covered, from roots to pollens and wood, from basic research to industry, from vibrational spectroscopy to autofluorescence, NMR to mass spectrometry and synchrotron based techniques, as well as data analysis.

The Special Issue will include selected papers by authors who were selected, by the scientific organizing committee, to presented at the conference, after successfully finalizing the peer review process of the journal with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications.

Dr. András Gorzsás
Dr. Notburga Gierlinger
Dr. Marie-Francoise Devaux
Dr. Fabienne Guillon
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

9 pages, 2037 KiB  
Article
Fluorescent Nano-Probes to Image Plant Cell Walls by Super-Resolution STED Microscopy
by Gabriel Paës, Anouck Habrant and Christine Terryn
Plants 2018, 7(1), 11; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants7010011 - 06 Feb 2018
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 6961
Abstract
Lignocellulosic biomass is a complex network of polymers making up the cell walls of plants. It represents a feedstock of sustainable resources to be converted into fuels, chemicals, and materials. Because of its complex architecture, lignocellulose is a recalcitrant material that requires some [...] Read more.
Lignocellulosic biomass is a complex network of polymers making up the cell walls of plants. It represents a feedstock of sustainable resources to be converted into fuels, chemicals, and materials. Because of its complex architecture, lignocellulose is a recalcitrant material that requires some pretreatments and several types of catalysts to be transformed efficiently. Gaining more knowledge in the architecture of plant cell walls is therefore important to understand and optimize transformation processes. For the first time, super-resolution imaging of poplar wood samples has been performed using the Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) technique. In comparison to standard confocal images, STED reveals new details in cell wall structure, allowing the identification of secondary walls and middle lamella with fine details, while keeping open the possibility to perform topochemistry by the use of relevant fluorescent nano-probes. In particular, the deconvolution of STED images increases the signal-to-noise ratio so that images become very well defined. The obtained results show that the STED super-resolution technique can be easily implemented by using cheap commercial fluorescent rhodamine-PEG nano-probes which outline the architecture of plant cell walls due to their interaction with lignin. Moreover, the sample preparation only requires easily-prepared plant sections of a few tens of micrometers, in addition to an easily-implemented post-treatment of images. Overall, the STED super-resolution technique in combination with a variety of nano-probes can provide a new vision of plant cell wall imaging by filling in the gap between classical photon microscopy and electron microscopy. Full article
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16 pages, 3762 KiB  
Article
Imaging and Spectroscopy of Natural Fluorophores in Pine Needles
by Lloyd Donaldson and Nari Williams
Plants 2018, 7(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants7010010 - 02 Feb 2018
Cited by 60 | Viewed by 8484
Abstract
Many plant tissues fluoresce due to the natural fluorophores present in cell walls or within the cell protoplast or lumen. While lignin and chlorophyll are well-known fluorophores, other components are less well characterized. Confocal fluorescence microscopy of fresh or fixed vibratome-cut sections of [...] Read more.
Many plant tissues fluoresce due to the natural fluorophores present in cell walls or within the cell protoplast or lumen. While lignin and chlorophyll are well-known fluorophores, other components are less well characterized. Confocal fluorescence microscopy of fresh or fixed vibratome-cut sections of radiata pine needles revealed the presence of suberin, lignin, ferulate, and flavonoids associated with cell walls as well as several different extractive components and chlorophyll within tissues. Comparison of needles in different physiological states demonstrated the loss of chlorophyll in both chlorotic and necrotic needles. Necrotic needles showed a dramatic change in the fluorescence of extractives within mesophyll cells from ultraviolet (UV) excited weak blue fluorescence to blue excited strong green fluorescence associated with tissue browning. Comparisons were made among fluorophores in terms of optimal excitation, relative brightness compared to lignin, and the effect of pH of mounting medium. Fluorophores in cell walls and extractives in lumens were associated with blue or green emission, compared to the red emission of chlorophyll. Autofluorescence is, therefore, a useful method for comparing the histology of healthy and diseased needles without the need for multiple staining techniques, potentially aiding visual screening of host resistance and disease progression in needle tissue. Full article
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16 pages, 2987 KiB  
Article
Raman Imaging of Plant Cell Walls in Sections of Cucumis sativus
by Ingrid Zeise, Zsuzsanna Heiner, Sabine Holz, Maike Joester, Carmen Büttner and Janina Kneipp
Plants 2018, 7(1), 7; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants7010007 - 25 Jan 2018
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 8886
Abstract
Raman microspectra combine information on chemical composition of plant tissues with spatial information. The contributions from the building blocks of the cell walls in the Raman spectra of plant tissues can vary in the microscopic sub-structures of the tissue. Here, we discuss the [...] Read more.
Raman microspectra combine information on chemical composition of plant tissues with spatial information. The contributions from the building blocks of the cell walls in the Raman spectra of plant tissues can vary in the microscopic sub-structures of the tissue. Here, we discuss the analysis of 55 Raman maps of root, stem, and leaf tissues of Cucumis sativus, using different spectral contributions from cellulose and lignin in both univariate and multivariate imaging methods. Imaging based on hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) indicates different substructures in the xylem cell walls of the different tissues. Using specific signals from the cell wall spectra, analysis of the whole set of different tissue sections based on the Raman images reveals differences in xylem tissue morphology. Due to the specifics of excitation of the Raman spectra in the visible wavelength range (532 nm), which is, e.g., in resonance with carotenoid species, effects of photobleaching and the possibility of exploiting depletion difference spectra for molecular characterization in Raman imaging of plants are discussed. The reported results provide both, specific information on the molecular composition of cucumber tissue Raman spectra, and general directions for future imaging studies in plant tissues. Full article
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