Magnetic resonance imaging of sugar beet taproots in soil reveals growth reduction and morphological changes during foliar Cercospora beticola infestation.

Cercospora leaf spot (CLS) infection can cause severe yield loss in sugar beet. Introduction of Cercospora-resistant varieties in breeding programmes is important for plant protection to reduce both fungicide applications and the risk of the development of fungal resistance. However, in vivo monitoring of the sugar-containing taproots at early stages of foliar symptoms and the characterization of the temporal development of disease progression has proven difficult. Non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements were conducted to quantify taproot development of genotypes with high (HS) and low (LS) levels of susceptibility after foliar Cercospora inoculation. Fourteen days post-inoculation (dpi) the ratio of infected leaf area was still low (~7%) in both the HS and LS genotypes. However, during this period, the volumetric growth of the taproot had already started to decrease. Additionally, inoculated plants showed a reduction of the increase in width of inner cambial rings while the width of outer rings increased slightly compared with non-inoculated plants. This response partly compensated for the reduced development of inner rings that had a vascular connection with Cercospora-inoculated leaves. Hence, alterations in taproot anatomical features such as volume and cambial ring development can be non-invasively detected already at 14 dpi, providing information on the early impact of the infection on whole-plant performance. All these findings show that MRI is a suitable tool to identify promising candidate parent lines with improved resistance to Cercospora, for example with comparatively lower taproot growth reduction at early stages of canopy infection, for future introduction into breeing programmes.

Intrinsic isotopic 13C labelling of polyphenols.

The intrinsic isotopic labelling of plants with (13)CO2 is an effective method to generate highly labelled compounds using photosynthesis and avoiding labour-intensive complex organic syntheses. In this study, the intrinsic isotopic labelling of polyphenols in parsley, spinach and peppermint is shown for the first time. The plants were grown in an atmosphere where (12)CO2 was replaced by (13)CO2, in order to generate highly labelled compounds. The total content of (13)C as well as the individual polyphenols were analysed by Isotopic Ratio-MS and HPLC-Iontrap-MS(n). After 34 days of plant growth under (13)CO2, degree of labelling was found to be higher than 90 atom% (13)C for most polyphenols, predominantly consisting of highly and fully labelled isotopomers; the total plant material contained more than 88 atom% (13)C. Such highly labelled compounds can be used in future studies to dissect both metabolism and bioavailability of polyphenols in humans.

Combined MRI-PET dissects dynamic changes in plant structures and functions.

Unravelling the factors determining the allocation of carbon to various plant organs is one of the great challenges of modern plant biology. Studying allocation under close to natural conditions requires non-invasive methods, which are now becoming available for measuring plants on a par with those developed for humans. By combining magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), we investigated three contrasting root/shoot systems growing in sand or soil, with respect to their structures, transport routes and the translocation dynamics of recently fixed photoassimilates labelled with the short-lived radioactive carbon isotope (11)C. Storage organs of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) and radish plants (Raphanus sativus) were assessed using MRI, providing images of the internal structures of the organs with high spatial resolution, and while species-specific transport sectoralities, properties of assimilate allocation and unloading characteristics were measured using PET. Growth and carbon allocation within complex root systems were monitored in maize plants (Zea mays), and the results may be used to identify factors affecting root growth in natural substrates or in competition with roots of other plants. MRI-PET co-registration opens the door for non-invasive analysis of plant structures and transport processes that may change in response to genomic, developmental or environmental challenges. It is our aim to make the methods applicable for quantitative analyses of plant traits in phenotyping as well as in understanding the dynamics of key processes that are essential to plant performance.