Visualization of zinc dynamics in intact plants using positron imaging of commercially available 65 Zn.

Abstract

Background Positron imaging can be used to non-destructively visualize the dynamics of a positron-emitting radionuclide in vivo, and is therefore a tool for understanding the mechanisms of nutrient transport in intact plants. The transport of zinc, which is one of the most important nutrient elements for plants, has so far been visualized by positron imaging using 62 Zn (half-life: 9.2 h), which is manufactured in the limited number of facilities that have a cyclotron. In contrast, the positron-emitting radionuclide 65 Zn (half-life: 244 days) is commercially available worldwide. In this study, we examined the possibility of conducting positron imaging of zinc in intact plants using 65 Zn. Results By administering 65 Zn and imaging over a long time, clear serial images of 65 Zn distributions from the root to the panicle of dwarf rice plants were successfully obtained. Conclusions Non-destructive visualization of zinc dynamics in plants was achieved using commercially available 65 Zn and a positron imaging system, demonstrating that zinc dynamics can be visualized even in facilities without a cyclotron.

Plant phenotyping relevance

市販65Znと陽電子イメージングを用いて、植物体内の亜鉛動態を非破壊可視化する手法の実現可能性を検証しており、植物生理状態の取得法が研究の中心である。

Code and data availability

The paper reports 65Zn positron imaging of rice plants, but states all data are included in the published article with no public repository deposit, no author analysis code, and no trained models. The only URLs mentioned (NIH ImageJ, SciPy) are generic third-party software libraries, not paper-specific assets.

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