Oral Presentation 26th ACMM “2020 Visions in Microscopy”

X-ray micro-tomographic imaging of dehydration changes in plant stems and leaves  (#88)

Matthew Blacker 1 , Tomás Fuenzalida 2 , Michael Turner 1 , Adrian Sheppard 1 , Marilyn Ball 2
  1. Research School of Physics, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
  2. Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

Understanding how plants respond to water stress, and the extent to which different species can recover from embolisms, remains a critical area as droughts become more common in many locations throughout the world.  X-ray micro-tomography (XMCT) is a powerful tool for this application due to its non-destructive nature and the high quality and resolution of XMCT images.  Laboratory XMCT, such as at the ANU CTLab, support imaging at low dose-rates and on time scales suitable for capturing plant hydraulics. To properly ascertain plant hydration states one must capture air bubbles (embolisms) that may be several microns across, while maintaining a field of view of at least several centimetres that includes stem, petiole and at least part of the leaf.  We demonstrate the first XMCT imaging of plants with this combination of resolution and field of view, and in which sharp images are obtained through an adaptive motion-compensation algorithm. In this study, we show that high-quality images can capture hydration changes in the stem, petiole and leaf regions in Avicennia Marina. Measurements of the changes in volume of air in each region can be used to produce quantitative evidence suggesting hydraulic repair and rehydration. These quantitative results corroborate qualitative observations that can be made directly from the CT images. The high-quality images of the dehydrated samples can also be used to present evidence for hydraulic segmentation in A. Marina, by studying the distributions of emboli through the stem, petiole and leaf. Using the visual analysis program Drishti, produced at ANU, these dehydrated samples also allow for the production of three-dimensional images of emboli, which is useful for making qualitative and quantitative statements about emboli structure. These results demonstrate the potential of MicroCT imaging to give new insights into problems in biology.