Scanning Electronen Mikroscope with EDX and Kryo

• Subject Area: Plant Sciences
• Term: Funded in 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 471591895

The Nees-Institu for Plant Biodiversty applies for a Scanning Electron Microscope with energy.-disperive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and a kryo-setup as a replacement for an older modell SEM (Leo 1450). SDcanning electron microscopy is - next to modern phylogenetics - a crucial technique for the research carried out at the Nees Institute and is emploeyd in a wide range of projects on taxonomy, morphology and systematics. In biology, scanning electron microscopy is the crucial instrument for investigating the (functional) morphology of biological surfaces, such as leaf surfaces with their trichomoes, cuticular waxes and epiphyllous bacteria, bones and generally small structures be it fruits, flowers, the gametophytes/sporophytes of early land plants, teeht, mouth parts of insects or other invertebrates. The requetsed special features of the new instrument additionally permit the thes tudy of biological objects without previous dehydration (Kryo-SEM) resp. permit the investigation of the chemcial make-up with a combination of material contrast (BSE) and x-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The Nees Institute has operated a unit for scanning electron micrscopy for the past decades. SEM is widely used in our own research, but also in the research of other working groups in the Fachgruppe Biologie and the agriculatural faculty and international collaborations. The machines currently available at the Nees Institute are long past their prime, but one of them will be kept up and runing mainly for teaching purposes. Access to the unit for Scanning Electron Microscopy at the Nees Institute is regulated by the user regulation of the "virtual Centre for Advanced Imaging in the Biology Section (AImBioS). This governs both access by other working groups, Institutes and extrenal users to the unit and ensures a high usage rate.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Rasterelektronenmikroskop mit EDX und Kryoeinrichtung
• Instrumentation Group: 5120 Rasterelektronenmikroskope (REM)
• Applicant Institution: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
• Leader: Professor Dr. Maximilian Weigend