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The "omics" technologies—genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics—are at the forefront of discovery in modern plant science and systems biology. In contrast to the rather static genome, however, the metabolome and the products measured in it are very dynamic. In science, metabolome refers to the totality of all small molecules, also known as metabolites, in a biological cell, tissue or organism. Their concentration generally fluctuates greatly, both spatially and temporally.

In the biomedical field, one of the most powerful technological platforms allowing for in vivo metabolic diagnostic and functional studies is nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In plant science, a similar perspective has been desired but not explored.

A new method for plant research

This method could now be provided by a development by scientists at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) and the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK). Chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) is a new method for plant MRI. This method enables noninvasive access to the metabolism of sugars and amino acids in complex sink organs (seeds, fruits, taproots, and tubers) of major crops (maize, barley, pea, potato, sugar beet, and sugarcane).

Peter M. Jakob, Professor of Experimental Magnetic Resonance Imaging at the JMU, and Dr. Ljudmilla Borisjuk, head of the Assimilate Allocation and NMR working group at the IPK, are responsible for this. The group presents the results of their study in the latest issue of the journal Science Advances.

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