Low-Temperature Specimen Preparations For Electron Microscopy and Their Applicability to Plant Materials
Progress in utilizing the technologies of low-temperature sample preparation for botanical materials in the electron microscope has notably lagged behind those of other biological specimens. To a great extent this is due to the structural features of plant materials which are frequently characterized by rigid cell walls, often with a nearly impermeable cuticle, air spaces around parenchymatous tissues, and large central vacuoles of high water content with no structural support. Freezing, or cryofixation, at its best, is capable of preserving otherwise highly labile cellular components for morphological examination by means of transmission electron microscopy. It also instantaneously stops cellular movement which may result in an unnatural distribution of cell contents and/or the formation of artifactual structures within cells. Among microorganisms, it is now believed that mesosomes in bacteria and lomasomes in many fungi may be considered artifacts caused by the slow rate of chemical fixation.