| Project Detail |
Positron emission tomography and multiphoton endoscopy for crop management As global food demand grows, sustainable agricultural strategies are crucial. Current technologies optimise nitrogen (N) fertiliser use in stressed fields but often mismanage amounts, causing nitrogen dispersion and ecological losses. The EU-funded RE-IMAGINE-CROPS project will enhance crop management by using in-field measurements of biophysical processes at tissue and cellular levels. The project introduces a portable multimodal technology combining positron emission tomography (PET) to measure metabolic processes at micrometre-scale precision and multiphoton endoscopy (ME) for real-time cellular analysis. This technology will measure crop signalling pathways triggered by N fertilisers shortly after application, providing insights into interactions through real-time PET reconstruction and spatial resolutions. Sustainable agriculture strategies have become central to European and global orientations as the demand of food increases with the rising world population. Current technologies qualitatively drive the application of Nitrogen (N)-fertilizers to stressed field areas but cannot precisely modulate the needed amount, resulting in dangerous N dispersion, ecological and economic losses. RE-IMAGINE-CROPS envisions applying basic plant science into crop management by quantitative in-field measurements of biophysical processes occurring at tissue and cellular level. The consortium will implement the first real-time in-field portable multimodal multiscale Positron Emission Tomography (PET)-Multiphoton Endoscope (ME) technology. PET measures the metabolic processes in the crops at the scale of hundreds of micrometers, while guiding the ME system to visualize functional mechanisms at a cellular level. The aim is to tailor the amount of fertilizer to be used by enabling measurement of functional processes reflecting the local and systemic crop signal pathways triggered by N-fertilizer shortly after application. RE-IMAGINE-CROPS involves real-time PET reconstruction, hydrodynamic modelling, optical fiber transmission optics, and features identification in multiple scales. It enables a new multimodal, mobile technology for the first time, with unprecedented spatial resolution (0.6 mm;1um) and real-time functionality at a rate of (2;10) Hz. These are enabled by a multimodal PET-ME tracer based on the Lifeact-Venus protein labeled with 89Zr. RE-IMAGINE-CROPS brings together eight institutions with leading scientists and cross-disciplinary expertise. Among them, EURO-BIOIMAGING ERIC and BFEDU, a large agrifood enterprise, will boost the impact and dissemination of this novel technology in to the European scientific and industrial landscape. On this basis, RE-IMAGINE-CROPS has the potential to support and shape the essential priorities in the EUs future sustainable crop management. |
