The use of soft x rays to study the ultrastructure of living biological material

Abstract

Imaging biological specimens with soft x rays offers several potential benefits over electron microscopy, and these are briefly reviewed. The disadvantages, most notably radiation-induced structural changes, have been investigated and images of irradiated algal cells ( Chlorella ) are presented. In soft x-ray contact microscopy the image is recorded rapidly to avoid both natural and radiation-induced movement and this technique has been used to study the ultrastructural effects of electron microscopy fixatives. In the epidermal hairs of tomato plants there are numerous strands of cytoplasm which, by light microscopy, appear to traverse the vacuole but are rarely seen by electron microscopy. However, by soft x-ray contact microscopy these strands and the organelles within them can be successfully imaged. Moreover, examination by soft x-ray contact microscopy of the cytoplasm in a fixed material shows that these strands are not present in chemically fixed material. This paper also reports the use of soft x-ray contact microscopy to examine the abscission cells found within the protonema of a moss ( Bryum tenuisetum ) and compares the images to those obtained by light and electron microscopy.