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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Geoffrey AbbottORCiD, Dr Sabrina Tardio, Dr Ethan Hack
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Terrestrialization depended on the evolution of biosynthetic pathways for biopolymers including lignin, cutin and suberin, which were concentrated in specific tissues, layers or organs such as the xylem, cuticle and roots on the submillimetre scale. However, it is often difficult, or even impossible especially for individual cells, to resolve the biomolecular composition of the different components of fossil plants on such a scale using the well-established coupled techniques of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. Here, we report the application of techniques for surface analysis to investigate the composition of Rhynia gwynne-vaughanii. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of two different spots (both 300 µm × 600 µm) confirmed the presence of carbon. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) revealed ‘chemical maps’ (imaging mode with 300 nm resolution) of aliphatic and aromatic carbon in the intact fossil that correlate with the vascular structures observed in high-resolution optical images. This study shows that imaging ToF-SIMS has value for determining the location of the molecular components of fossil embryophytes while retaining structural information that will help elucidate how terrestrialization shaped the early evolution of land plant cell wall biochemistry.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The Rhynie cherts: our earliest terrestrial ecosystem revisited’
Author(s): Abbott GD, Fletcher IW, Tardio S, Hack E
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Philosophical Transactions B: Biological Sciences
Year: 2018
Volume: 373
Issue: 1739
Print publication date: 05/02/2018
Online publication date: 18/12/2017
Acceptance date: 14/07/2017
Date deposited: 29/11/2017
ISSN (print): 0962-8436
ISSN (electronic): 1471-2970
Publisher: The Royal Society Publishing
URL: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0499
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0499
PubMed id: 29254964
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