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The Brookhaven Plant Imaging Program uses non-invasive imaging of short-lived radiotracers to investigate the coordinated behavior of metabolism and transport processes and how it translates into the characteristic behavior of plants: their growth, development and responses to environmental challenges. Because these processes occur in different parts of the organism, are linked by long distance transport, and depend on the structural integrity of delicate tissues, it is essential to use non-invasive techniques to show the individual processes as they respond to developmental and environmental signals.

Radioligands

The biological activity of chemical compounds usually arises from their interaction with enzymes, transporters, channels and other proteins. We are quantifying enzyme activity and receptor binding in plants by imaging the location of radio-labeled ligands. This work springs from developments here at Brookhaven, for example the use of a fluorine-18 labeled analogue of glucose (FDG: now used world-wide for clinical PET imaging).

Transport of C-11 -sugar in a wheat plant.

Research Topics

• Plant defense responses to herbivory
• Regulation of carbon partitioning in plants
• Phytoremediation of groundwater pollution

Last Modified: February 1, 2008

One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

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