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Subcellular Composition Based On Light-Element EELS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 July 2020
Extract
Recent work on biological electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) in the analytical electron microscope has focused on measuring concentrations of the important elements, calcium and phosphorus. Analysis of the light elements, for which EELS was originally thought to be best suited, has so far not yielded much useful information from biological specimens. Whereas low-loss fine structure has been analyzed successfully to measure distributions of water and protein in frozen-hydrated cells, core-edge fine structure cannot be recorded at sufficiently low dose to obtain useful chemical information. However, the atomic ratios of the light elements (carbon, nitrogen and oxygen) obtained from EELS are less dependent on electron dose. Together with sulfur (in proteins) and phosphorus (in nucleic acids, phospholipids and phosphates) these ratios can help determine the types and proportions of compounds that are present at the subcellular level. Here we re-examine the potential for making these kinds of measurements.
- Type
- Quantitative Biological and Materials Microanalysis by Electrons and X-Rays
- Information
- Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 3 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis '97, Microscopy Society of America 55th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 31st Annual Meeting, Histochemical Society 48th Annual Meeting, Cleveland, Ohio, August 10-14, 1997 , August 1997 , pp. 927 - 928
- Copyright
- Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 1997
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