Table I. Comparison of advanced techniques for monitoring polysaccharide dynamics.

A summary is provided of technical advantages and limitations, along with key biological observations, which are discussed in the text. For the electron microscopy column, TEM or SEM indicate points specific to either transmission or scanning electron microscopy, respectively. R denotes the relative resolution of a technique and ranges from the diffraction limit of light (+) to atomic resolution (+++). S denotes the relative speed of a technique (including the typical sample preparation time) and ranges from multiple days (+) to mere seconds (+++).

Parameter	Light Microscopy	Electron Microscopy	Atomic Force Microscopy	Solid-State NMR	X-Ray Diffraction
Advantages	Live-cell imaging	TEM: mAb-compatible	Measurement of elasticity	Atomic-scale chemical information	Highest spatial resolution
	Many probes (see Table II)	Organelle resolution	Near-native cell walls	Intact tissues
Visualization	CESA dynamics	SEM: CESA rosette size	Pattern of polymers	Cellulose-matrix polymer location	Cellulose microfibril dimensions
	Polymers across tissues	TEM: polymers within a cell	Stiffness of cell wall
Limitations	Epitope masking	TEM: long preparation	Uncertain polymer identity	Analysis of biomass as a whole (no cell specificity)	Works only for crystal structures
	Probe specificity	Fixation artifacts
R	+	++	++	+++	+++
S	+++	+	++	+	+