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

The presented method enables collection and multi-element analysis of small-sized biological samples, ranging down to the nanogram level. As such, the method paves the road for single cell and tissue-specific quantitative ionomics, which allow for future transcriptional, proteomic and metabolomic data to be correlated with ionomic profiles. Such analyses will deepen our understanding of how the elemental composition of plants is regulated, e.g. by transporter proteins and physical barriers (i.e. the Casparian strip and suberin lamellae in the root endodermis).