Metabolite detection in plants: A new application field for CEST?

Chemical shift imaging (CSI) is rather challenging for the in vivo detection of low concentrated metabolites in plants due to its intrinsic low detection sensitivity and the need for accurate water suppression in the presence of magnetically inhomogeneous plant structures. As an alternative solution, we propose Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST) for spectroscopic imaging. Within the work, several plant models were identified where CEST can be used as a versatile alternative for the detection of sugar and amino acids with increased spatial resolution and sensitivity, which demonstrates that CEST has a high potential for plant examinations.