Electromagnetic Field-Assisted Frozen Tissue Planarization Enhances MALDI-MSI in Plant Spatial Omics.

Area of Science:

• Plant science
• Analytical chemistry
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Longitudinal tissue sectioning of plants with irregular morphology is difficult.
• This limitation hinders molecular profiling using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI).

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel technique for planarizing and regularizing frozen plant tissues.
• To enable longitudinal sectioning for improved MALDI-MSI analysis of diverse plant samples.

Main Methods:

• Developed electromagnetic field-assisted frozen tissue planarization (EMFAFTP) using adjustable electromagnets.
• Applied EMFAFTP to irregular plant tissues (flowers, leaves, roots) from six species.
• Evaluated the technique's performance for MALDI-MSI of various endogenous molecules.

Main Results:

• EMFAFTP successfully achieved nondestructive planarization and regularization of frozen plant tissues.
• Enabled high-quality longitudinal sectioning for subsequent MALDI-MSI.
• Demonstrated significantly enhanced capabilities for profiling secondary metabolites, amino acids, lipids, and proteins.

Conclusions:

• EMFAFTP is a robust technique for preparing challenging plant samples for MALDI-MSI.
• This method advances plant spatial omics by improving molecular profiling.
• EMFAFTP has the potential to become a standard technique in plant science research.