Towards single-cell ionomics: a novel micro-scaled method for multi-element analysis of nanogram-sized biological samples

Table 2 Dry weight concentrations in wild type Arabidopsis thaliana

Element	100 mg seed, n = 4		1 mg seed, n = 4		10 seeds, n = 10		1 seed, n = 10
Element	%g g⁻¹	RSD%	%g g⁻¹	RSD%	%g g⁻¹	RSD%	%g g⁻¹	RSD%
S	1.60 ± 0.06	4	1.32 ± 0.18	13	1.71 ± 0.25	15	1.79 ± 0.80	45	P = 0.287*
K	1.55 ± 0.05	4	1.41 ± 0.21	15	1.89 ± 0.21	11	2.25 ± 0.60	27	P = 0.07*
P	1.16 ± 0.04^ab	3	0.99 ± 0.131^a	13	1.32 ± 0.17^ab	13	1.49 ± 0.31^b	21
Ca	0.78 ± 0.07	8	0.63 ± 0.04	6	0.81 ± 0.11	15	0.95 ± 0.30	31	P = 0.119*
Mg	0.42 ± 0.01^ab	2	0.37 ± 0.05^b	14	0.47 ± 0.06^ab	13	0.52 ± 0.09^a	18

	µg g⁻¹	RSD%	µg g⁻¹	RSD%	µg g⁻¹	RSD%	µg g⁻¹	RSD%
Na	159 ± 5	3	98 ± 14	15	171 ± 87	51	311 ± 133	43	P = 0.127*
Fe	121 ± 16^a	13	98 ± 13^a	13	135 ± 32^a	24	372 ± 69^b	25
Zn	81 ± 2	3	87 ± 11	13	113 ± 14	12	155 ± 32	21	P = 0.043*
Mn	68 ± 2^a	3	69 ± 2^ab	3	89 ± 12^ab	14	110 ± 33^b	30
B	14 ± 2^a	11	11 ± 1^a	7	17 ± 3^a	21	103 ± 24^b	23

Accurate and precise data was measured for the standard 100 mg plant material (Arabidopsis seeds, n = 4) and compared with the measurement of 1 mg seed material and further down to 10 seeds (n = 10) and 1 seeds (n = 10). Data was tested with a one-way ANOVA t-test, and the asterisks indicate significant differences (*P ≤ 0.05; **P ≤ 0.01; ***P ≤ 0.001) between the root tissue and the blank samples for each element (n = 10). *The differences in the median values among the treatment groups are not great enough to exclude the possibility that the difference is due to random sampling variability; there is not a statistically significant difference
Different letters (a, b) indicate significant differences between measurements

ISSN: 1746-4811