In 2023, 142.59 Million metric tons of barley grain was harvested globally, making it the fourth most cultivated crop worldwide. Barley is a versatile and resilient crop and is often grown in places where maze and rice cannot be easily grown. Primarily, it is used for animal feeds and is often favoured by farmers due to its high protein and mineral content. However, barley is also a key ingredient in the production of many beers and spirits, with scotch whisky contributing £5.6bn to the UK economy in 2023. Making barley not only an important crop but also a profitable one. Climate change and a growing population pose a significant threat to food security in the future. It is therefore essential to grow successful and sustainable crops.

Germination is a critical stage in a plant’s life cycle. Typically, 10-25% of gains do not successfully germinate. The transformation from dormant grain to plant is a complex biochemical process. Several factors contribute to the success of grain germination, including morphology, nutrient distribution and spatial transcription, which are amongst the most important together with environmental conditions.

In recent years, multi-modal imaging has increased in popularity, combining a number of datasets to allow for greater depth of understanding of model systems. We are using Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to map the distribution of endogenous metals across the first 24 hours after imbibition. The metals of interest (Mg, Ni, Mn, Cu, Fe, Mo) are key macro an micro nutrients essential for biological function such as enzymes activity and transportation. Serial sections of germinated grains are embedded in paraffin and sectioned for analysis using an Elemental Scientific ImageBio 266 Laser linked to a Perkin Elmer NexIon 350 ICP Mass Spectrometer. Additionally, Micro Computed Tomography (Micro-CT) data was acquired using a Brucker SkyScan 1272, to investigate the morphological changes during the germination timepoints. This will also be used to align the LA-ICP-MS images acting as a scaffold, transforming the 2D image data into a 3D model.

The LA-ICP-MS and Micro-CT data will be combined with transcriptomic data obtained at La Trobe University (Melbourne) to establish a 3D Cell atlas of a germinating barley grain, developing an in-depth understanding of this key determining factor of a plant lifecycle.