3D X-ray fluorescence imaging of insect pests and analysis in a virtual reality environment

Abstract

X-ray fluorescence imaging (XFI) is a sensitive technique for obtaining the elemental composition of samples with 2D spatial resolution. By combining whole-body histology, XFI, and custom software tools, we demonstrate that 3D elemental composition of cutworm and lygus insect pests may be obtained through the reconstruction of tissue sections. This improvement enables use of the high sensitivity of an XFI beamline for 3D spatial elemental analysis, which would otherwise not be achieved using other less sensitive 3D analytical techniques. It is further demonstrated that the 3D reconstructed insect pests can be loaded in virtual reality software, for enriched and expedited visualization, data processing, and analysis.