The potential of nuclear magnetic resonance to track lipids in planta

- Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is a highly versatile platform for non-invasive analysis and imaging of biological samples.
- We discuss the multiple ways for manipulation of nuclear spin to characterize lipid deposition in living plants/seeds.
- Key future role of NMR in the study of living plants is anticipated.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) provides a highly flexible platform for non invasive analysis and imaging biological samples, since the manipulation of nuclear spin allows the tailoring of experiments to maximize the informativeness of the data. MRI is capable of visualizing a holistic picture of the lipid storage in living plant/seed. This review has sought to explain how the technology can be used to acquire functional and physiological data from plant samples, and how to exploit it to characterize lipid deposition in vivo. At the same time, we have referred to the current limitations of NMR technology as applied to plants, and in particular of the difficulty of transferring methodologies optimized for animal/medical subjects to plant ones. A forward look into likely developments in the field is included, anticipating its key future role in the study of living plant.

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