Credit: Qingshan Wei, NC State University
Key points:
- Researchers developed an electronic patch that can monitor plants and crops for different pathogen stressors.
- The sensors alert users by targeting VOCs that are relevant to specific diseases or plant stress.
- The team says they are two steps away from having a patch that growers can utilize in real-world conditions.
North Carolina State University researchers have developed an electronic patch that can be placed on the leaves of plants to monitor crops for different pathogens and various stressors. In tests, the patch was able to detect a viral infection in tomatoes more than a week before growers saw visible symptoms of disease.
“This is important because the earlier growers can identify plant diseases or fungal infections, the better able they will be to limit the spread of the disease and preserve their crop,” said Qingshan Wei, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State. “In addition, the more quickly growers can identify abiotic stresses, such as irrigation water contaminated by saltwater intrusion, the better able they will be to address relevant challenges and improve crop yield.”
The technology, published in Science Advances, builds on an earlier prototype patch that detected plant disease by monitoring volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by plants when they are under different circumstances. The sensors alert users by targeting VOCs that are relevant to specific diseases or plant stress to provide an early warning system.
The researchers tested the new patches on tomato plants in greenhouses, using different patches that incorporated a combination of sensors. The tomato plants were infected with three different pathogens: tomato spotted wilt virus, early blight, and late blight. The plants were also exposed to a variety of stresses, including overwatering, lack of light, drought conditions, and high salt concentrations.
The researchers took data from these experiments and plugged them into an artificial intelligence program to determine which combinations of sensors worked most effectively to identify both disease and abiotic stress.
The researchers say they are two steps away from having a patch that growers can use—but first need to make the patches wireless, then test them under real-world conditions.