A device for the controlled cooling and freezing of excised plant specimens during magnetic resonance imaging

编号 040029002

推送时间 20210510

研究领域 森林培育 

年份 2021 

类型 期刊 

语种 英语

标题 A device for the controlled cooling and freezing of excised plant specimens during magnetic resonance imaging

来源期刊 Plant Methods

期 第290期

发表时间 20210413

关键词 MRI;  3D printing;  Dormant bud;  Freezing resistance;  Plant cold hardiness; 

摘要 Background
Investigating plant mechanisms to tolerate freezing temperatures is critical to developing crops with superior cold hardiness. However, the lack of imaging methods that allow the visualization of freezing events in complex plant tissues remains a key limitation. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been successfully used to study many different plant models, including the study of in vivo changes during freezing. However, despite its benefits and past successes, the use of MRI in plant sciences remains low, likely due to limited access, high costs, and associated engineering challenges, such as keeping samples frozen for cold hardiness studies. To address this latter need, a novel device for keeping plant specimens at freezing temperatures during MRI is described.
Results
The device consists of commercial and custom parts. All custom parts were 3D printed and made available as open source to increase accessibility to research groups who wish to reproduce or iterate on this work. Calibration tests documented that, upon temperature equilibration for a given experimental temperature, conditions between the circulating coolant bath and inside the device seated within the bore of the magnet varied by less than 0.1 °C. The device was tested on plant material by imaging buds from Vaccinium macrocarpon in a small animal MRI system, at four temperatures, 20 °C, ??7 °C, ??14 °C, and ???21 °C. Results were compared to those obtained by independent controlled freezing test (CFT) evaluations. Non-damaging freezing events in inner bud structures were detected from the imaging data collected using this device, phenomena that are undetectable using CFT.
Conclusions
The use of this novel cooling and freezing device in conjunction with MRI facilitated the detection of freezing events in intact plant tissues through the observation of the presence and absence of water in liquid state. The device represents an important addition to plant imaging tools currently available to researchers. Furthermore, its open-source and customizable design ensures that it will be accessible to a wide range of researchers and applications.

服务人员 孙小满

服务院士 尹伟伦

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