Live imaging of dynamic transport of cadmium from culture to shoot via root

Suzui, Nobuo; Ishikawa, Satoru*; Igura, Masato; Ishii, Satomi; Kuramata, Masato*; Abe, Tadashi*; Makino, Tomoyuki*; Yin, Y.-G.; Kawachi, Naoki; Fujimaki, Shu

PETIS has been applied for analyses of cadmium transport from the root organ to the grains in rice plants in previous studies. In this study, we first realized direct imaging and quantitative analysis of the dynamic process of cadmium transport from hydroponic culture to shoot via root organ. When a radiotracer is applied to plant roots for imaging experiments, it has been usual that the region of application is shielded or set off from the field of view because of too high radioactivity there. We successfully obtained serial quantitative images by developing suitable vessels for observation and arranging best radioactivity of the tracer. High-Cd-accumulating lines of rice and Sedum, a hyper accumulator plant for heavy metals, were subjected to this experimental system and analyzed for their abilities of Cd uptake.