Guide to Plant-PET Imaging Using 11CO2

Abstract

Due to its high sensitivity and specificity for tumor detection, positron emission tomography (PET) has become a standard and widely used molecular imaging technique. Given the popularity of PET, both clinically and preclinically, its use has been extended to study plants. However, only a limited number of research groups worldwide report PET-based studies, while we believe that this technique has much more potential and could contribute extensively to plant science. The limited application of PET may be related to the complexity of putting together methodological developments from multiple disciplines, such as radio-pharmacology, physics, mathematics and engineering, which may form an obstacle for some research groups. By means of this manuscript, we want to encourage researchers to study plants using PET. The main goal is to provide a clear description on how to design and execute PET scans, process the resulting data and fully explore its potential by quantification via compartmental modeling. The different steps that need to be taken will be discussed as well as the related challenges. Hereby, the main focus will be on, although not limited to, tracing 11 CO 2 to study plant carbon dynamics.

Plant phenotyping relevance

植物PET撮像の設計・実施、データ処理、コンパートメントモデルによる定量を体系的に扱う方法論的ガイドであり、植物の炭素動態という生理状態の取得・解析手法が中心である。

Code and data availability

This is a methods guide for plant-PET imaging. It mentions supplementary material and generic tools (Horos DICOM viewer, R), but no paper-specific public dataset, images, code, or models are described with availability language.

No evidence-backed public reproduction asset is currently recorded.