Analyzing time activity curves from spatio-temporal tracer data to determine tracer transport velocity in plants

Mathematical Biosciences, vol. 383, pp. 109430

Abstract

C, enable the monitoring of spatially localized transport processes on short time scales in living plants. Typically, such tracer transport experiments yield time activity curves (TACs) of tracer activity over time at various locations along a transport pathway. These TACs can exhibit different characteristic shapes that strongly depend on tracer transport dynamics, reflecting properties such as transport velocity, exchange with surrounding tissue, and tracer storage along the pathway. Various methods, either data-driven or model-based, exist to determine transport velocities from TACs. However, for some TAC shapes, the inferred carbon tracer velocity values can be inconsistent and greatly vary between analysis methods. In the present study, we review and evaluate different analysis methods for their suitability to reliably determine tracer transport velocities from typical TAC shapes. For this evaluation, we use both in silico generated and experimentally acquired TACs from positron emission tomography measurements on tomato, barley, and bean. We demonstrate that each of the compared methods can be suitable for specific TAC shapes while being less or not appropriate for others. In conclusion, we present a case-specific evaluation of methods as a reference for analyzing TACs from tracer transport experiments, which allows to ensure a robust and globally comparable determination of transport velocities.

Authors 4

1. Hannah Lanzrath Aachen

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich, IBG-2: Plant Sciences, 52428 Jülich, Germany; RWTH Aachen University, Computational Systems Biotechnology, 52074 Aachen, Germany; Forschungszentrum Jülich, Center for Advanced Simulation and Analytics (CASA), 52428 Jülich, Germany

2. Eric von Lieres Aachen

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich, IBG-1: Biotechnology, 52428 Jülich, Germany; RWTH Aachen University, Computational Systems Biotechnology, 52074 Aachen, Germany; Forschungszentrum Jülich, Center for Advanced Simulation and Analytics (CASA), 52428 Jülich, Germany

3. Ralf Metzner

   Forschungszentrum Jülich

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich, IBG-2: Plant Sciences, 52428 Jülich, Germany; Forschungszentrum Jülich, Center for Advanced Simulation and Analytics (CASA), 52428 Jülich, Germany

4. Gregor Johannes Huber

   Forschungszentrum Jülich

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich, IBG-2: Plant Sciences, 52428 Jülich, Germany; Forschungszentrum Jülich, Center for Advanced Simulation and Analytics (CASA), 52428 Jülich, Germany. Electronic address: g.huber@fz-juelich.de