MRI

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a fascinating and versatile technology. Several Nobel Prizes have been awarded to MRI researchers. While it has primarily been used in medical research and clinical diagnostics, its applications extend far beyond this. In other words, MRI can be used to create detailed, non-invasive, in vivo maps of seeds, fruits, roots, and leaves. It enables growth, metabolism and the movement of molecules to be tracked in ways that are otherwise impossible.

What happens when a plant is placed inside an MRI scanner? MRI instruments typically possess a strong static magnetic field. This magnetic field aligns the spins of the protons in hydrogen atoms, and then radio waves knock them out of alignment. As the spins gradually realign, they emit a signal, or resonate. Depending on the chemical environment, they resonate at different frequencies. This enables different tissues with different chemical properties to be visualised. Hydrogen protons, which are abundant in plants due to water and lipids, are therefore easy to measure, but other nuclei can also be detected. For more details, we here refer to the publication Borisjuk et al., New Phytologist 2023.

MRI represents a technically sophisticated method. In case you have potential applications, please contact us to find out more. We will be happy to make you an individual offer.