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Non‐invasive imaging of cellulose microfibril orientation within plant cell walls by polarized Raman microspectroscopy
Author(s) -
Sun Lan,
Singh Seema,
Joo Michael,
VegaSanchez Miguel,
Ronald Pamela,
Simmons Blake A.,
Adams Paul,
Auer Manfred
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
biotechnology and bioengineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 189
eISSN - 1097-0290
pISSN - 0006-3592
DOI - 10.1002/bit.25690
Subject(s) - microfibril , cell wall , cellulose , materials science , anisotropy , characterization (materials science) , raman spectroscopy , plant cell , orientation (vector space) , biophysics , botany , chemistry , optics , biology , nanotechnology , geometry , biochemistry , physics , mathematics , gene
Cellulose microfibrils represent the major scaffold of plant cell walls. Different packing and orientation of the microfibrils at the microscopic scale determines the macroscopic properties of cell walls and thus affect their functions with a profound effect on plant survival. We developed a polarized Raman microspectroscopic method to determine cellulose microfibril orientation within rice plant cell walls. Employing an array of point measurements as well as area imaging and subsequent Matlab‐assisted data processing, we were able to characterize the distribution of cellulose microfibril orientation in terms of director angle and anisotropy magnitude. Using this approach we detected differences between wild type rice plants and the rice brittle culm mutant, which shows a more disordered cellulose microfibril arrangement, and differences between different tissues of a wild type rice plant. This novel non‐invasive Raman imaging approach allows for quantitative assessment of cellulose fiber orientation in cell walls of herbaceous plants, an important advancement in cell wall characterization. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;113: 82–90. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.