Using Synchrotron-Based on X-ray Fluorescence to Study Oat Varieties Impact on Minerals Distribution

The objective of this study was to use the synchrotron based on X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to investigate the micro-elements (Mn, Se, Cu, Zn, Fe, Mo) and macro-elements (Ca, P, S, K) distribution in different cool-season oat varieties. All the samples are from the same location and soil conditions. Four varieties of oats including Arborg, Nasser, Haymaker and Summit provided by the Crop Development Center (CDC, Aaron Beattie) of University of Saskatchewan were soaked in ultra-pure water overnight. These samples were flash frozen using liquid nitrogen and then sectioned at 80 µm with the Leica CM1950 cryostat. The samples were scanned by synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence with 5 µm x 5 µm solution and 15 keV energy beam at the BioXAS-Imaging beamline of Canadian Light Source (University of Saskatchewan). The results show that Ca, P and K were mainly distributed in aleurone layer, crease region and germ but S was also found in the starch endosperm in any varieties. The concentration of macro-elements was higher increase region for all varieties. Compared with other oat varieties, the concentration of macro-elements was relatively lower in germ for Summit variety. As for micro-elements, Mn, Zn, and Fe were mainly distributed in aleurone layer, crease region and germ except starch endosperm. However, Se, Cu and Mo could be found in the starch endosperm, especially for Selenium. The concentration of Fe was relatively lower compared to other micro-elements in any oat variety. Finally, Cu appeared very low for CDC Nasser oat. In conclusions, synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence is a very useful tool and has a great potential to reveal the macro and micro-elements distribution in oat cereal varieties.

Key words: synchrotron; X-ray fluorescence; micro-elements; macro-elements; cereal oats.

Presented at the 2022 Animal Nutrition Conference of Canada. For information on the next edition, click here.