XVI International Botanical Congess

NMR imaging has been used to follow different tissues of plants and cells non-invasively during physiological processes. Optical microscopy was used to relate the relaxation time T2 to anatomical information. T2 turned out to be related to cell size/geometry and membrane permeability. The signal amplitude yields information on the amount of water per pixel. These parameters were used to monitor the growth and adaptation of the shoot apex of maize and pearl millet before and during osmotic stress. The maize stem tissue did not show changes in any of the NMR parameters. For pearl millet however, significant changes in tonoplast permeability were found during stress. These results may point to the functioning of aquaporins in pearl millet.