Particle-based Imaging Tools Revealing Water Flows in Maize Nodal Vascular Plexus

Abstract

In plants, water flows are the major driving force behind the growth and play a crucial role in the life cycle. To study hydrodynamics, methods based on tracking small particles inside water flows occupy a special place. Due to these tools, it is possible to get information about the dynamics of the spatial distribution of the fluxes characteristics. In this paper, using contrast-enhanced MRI, we have shown that gadolinium chelate, used as an MRI contrast agent, marks the structural characteristics of xylem bundles of maize stem nodes and internodes. Supplementing MRI data, a high-precision visualization of xylem vessels by laser scanning microscopy was used to reveal structural and dimensional characteristics of the stem vascular system. In addition, we proposed the concept of using the prototype "Y-type xylem vascular bundles" as a model of the elementary connection of vessels within the vascular system. A Reynolds number can match the microchannel model with the real xylem vessels.

Code and data availability

The paper's phenotype data (LSM 3D stem images, MRI spatio-temporal series, vessel measurements in Table S4) are only referenced via Supplementary Materials at a placeholder MDPI URL that does not exactly match any allowed URL and is not actionable. Other URLs cited (Fiji, LSM-W2, MorphoLibJ, polis-instruments) are the

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