Plant metabolism is strongly impacted by rising CO₂ concentrations and rising temperatures, but plant metabolism also feeds back onto our environment, determining the future trajectory of climate change. Moreover, plants and agricultural productivity, critically depend on the availability of carbon and nitrogen nutrients in soil, as well as on the plants ability to assimilate those nutrients. However, current technology is not able to non-invasively track, much less image, the biochemical processes on roots in soil in real time. Non-invasive molecular imaging technology is critical to develop microbial products in agriculture that can sustain crop production in challenging environments, increase soil health, reduce required fertilizer inputs and help us manage the challenges associated with climate change.

In this proposal we develop a new, non-invasive molecular imaging approach to visualize metabolic transformations, at low concentrations, directly in soil where the critical plant-soil-microbe interactions control nutrient uptake and deposit carbon. Our new approach emerges from our recent discoveries in the fields of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), which have led us to rethink the fundamental physics governing these spectroscopy and imaging modalities. We call the new, proposed form of MRI “RASER MRI (Radiofrequency Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation MRI)” because of the realization that under specific, quantum-enhanced conditions, MRI physics can be recast in the same fundamental physical principles also governing LASERs (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation); and we have already started to show that RASER MRI can break the fundamental resolution limits of traditional MRI, and sense chemical transformations. In the proposed work, we aim for broadly usable RASER MRI.

RASERs operate in the kHz to low-MHz regime, instead of 10¹⁴-10¹⁵ Hz frequencies of LASER light, such that RASER MRI becomes feasible at low magnetic-fields, compatible with in situ soil imaging.RASER MRI can also be conducted with wireless MRI sensors with ultrahigh quality factors (Q) when taking advantage of recent advances in modern active-feedback electronics and quantum technology. The combination of the negative hyperpolarization and the high-Q circuits can generate coherent emission of continuous stimulated MRI signal, which results in arbitrarily-long-lasting image encoding thus breaking the fundamental sensitivity and resolution limits of MRI.  With the successful completion the proposed work we provide a RASER MRI prototype that can be tested against current bioimaging standards (e.g. Mass-Spec imaging, PET imaging, microscopy). Our work has the potential to set the stage for a revolution in modern MRI technology by providing unprecedented insights into the metabolic machinery underlying plant-soil-microbe interactions in the rhizosphere and beyond.