Abstract
Since the mechanical properties of single cells together with the intercellular adhesive properties determine the macro-mechanical properties of plants, a method for evaluation of the cell elastic properties is needed to help explanation of the behavior of fruits and vegetables in handling and food processing. For this purpose, indentation of tomato mesocarp cells with an atomic force microscope was used. The Young's modulus of a cell using the Hertz and Sneddon models, and stiffness were calculated from force-indentation curves. Use of two probes of distinct radius of curvature (20 nm and 10,000nm) showed that the measured elastic properties were significantly affected by tip geometry. The Young's modulus was about 100 kPa ± 35 kPa and 20 kPa ± 14 kPa for the sharper tip and a bead tip, respectively. Moreover, large variability regarding elastic properties (>100%) among cells sampled from the same region in the fruit was observed. We showed that AFM provides the possibility of combining nano-mechanical properties with topography imaging, which could be very useful for the study of structure-related properties of fruits and vegetables at the cellular and sub-cellular scale.
Highlights
Mechanical properties and texture have important roles in determining the quality of fruits and vegetables [1]
This study showed for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, the possibility of nano-structure characterization of cell walls of individual living cells extracted from naturally grown fruit
This study shows that atomic force microscopy could be used for evaluation of the elastic properties of cells extracted from naturally grown fruit pericarp
Summary
Mechanical properties and texture have important roles in determining the quality of fruits and vegetables [1]. Investigation of the micro and nano-mechanics of plants is important because the composition at this level is very dynamic, e.g., during postharvest maturation of fruits [13]. Up to now a few techniques have been developed to investigate the mechanics of single cells, such as compression between two parallel plates [15] or micro- and nano-indentation methods [16]. Compression is performed in a relatively large force range (10–1000 μN) and with strain of up to about 0.3 [12], often ended with the cell bursting [17]. Micro-indentation can be used to measure the mechanical properties of single cells or tissue. A device that allows automation of micro-indentation measurements is the cellular force microscope (CFM) [19]. CFM, which is an assembly of commercially available components, is a micrometre resolution system capable of applying forces from the submicronewton to the milinewton range using a hemispherical probe of
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