Spatial localization of elements and metabolites in plants
Type of project: national project
Duration: 2019 - 2022
Project leader: Prof. Dr Katarina Vogel-MikušCode: N1-0105Coworkers: Dr Marijan Nečemer, Prof. Dr Primož PeliconLaboratories: XRF - Laboratory for X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, MIC - Microanalytical Centre
As sessile organisms, plants need to constantly adapt to environmental changes. To that end, they accumulate ions of various elements (ionome) and synthesise a plethora of biochemical compounds (metabolome). Ionome and metabolome represent dynamic and spatially distributed components, calling for the development of spatially resolved analytical techniques to relate biochemical compositions at different organisational levels (organ, tissue, cell) to the anatomical, physiological, and genetic traits of plants. Since one instrumental technique is not sufficient to provide spatially resolved information on biochemical composition of plants, the SLOEMP project aims to assemble multimodal instrumental platform and workflows for unified “single sample” imaging using accelerator-based micro-PIXE, MeV-SIMS and FTIR. The SLOEMP project will revolutionise the field of biochemical imaging by creating increasingly powerful tools leading to valuable new insights into different biomolecular processes in plants, on a long-term basis improving plant production, food quality and safety.
