Abstract
A three-dimensional (3D) visualization technique was developed to visualize the distributions of protein and starch inside the whole body of a brown rice grain. The automatic precision microtome system that was developed for microscopy was applied to obtain sections from the whole body of a single grain. The obtained sections were sequentially adhered onto a specialized adhesive tape for 3D reconstruction. All sections were stained by a chemical technique to visualize the protein and starch. Each stained section was digitally imaged using a color charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. The two-dimensional (2D) digital images contained the color information representing protein and starch. A 3D image of the whole body of a brown rice grain was reconstructed by accumulating the 2D digital images in a personal computer. A three-dimensional representation of the distributions of protein and starch in a grain of brown rice was thus constructed.
