Scientists Develop Imaging Technique that Shows Plants' Real-Time Ionic Movement

A new imaging technique is believed to pave way for a more precise research in plant physiology as scientists from the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences have developed radioisotope imaging techniques that overcome restrictions posed to other methods and allow real-time imaging of ionic movement in plants.

Ionic nutrition is essential for plant development and while many techniques have been developed to image and/or measure ionic movement in plants, most are destructive, preventing real-time or long-term analysis, or require special or dark conditions that limit the form of possible analysis. The newly developed radioisotope imaging systems have a great advantage over other methods in sensitivity, resolution, wide dynamic range, numerical treatment of the image, and the ability to acquire the image under normal light conditions. In combination with other established techniques, these imaging systems should also stimulate the development of research into genomic expression and the movement of inorganic nutrients.

View the University of Tokyo's news release at http://www.a.u-tokyo.ac.jp/english/topics/2012/20121017-2.html.