In Vivo Phenotyping for the Early Detection of Drought Stress in Tomato

Abstract

<jats:p>Drought stress imposes a major constraint over a crop yield and can be expected to grow in importance if the climate change predicted comes about. Improved methods are needed to facilitate crop management via the prompt detection of the onset of stress. Here, we report the use of an in vivo OECT (organic electrochemical transistor) sensor, termed as bioristor, in the context of the drought response of the tomato plant. The device was integrated within the plant’s stem, thereby allowing for the continuous monitoring of the plant’s physiological status throughout its life cycle. Bioristor was able to detect changes of ion concentration in the sap upon drought, in particular, those dissolved and transported through the transpiration stream, thus efficiently detecting the occurrence of drought stress immediately after the priming of the defence responses. The bioristor’s acquired data were coupled with those obtained in a high-throughput phenotyping platform revealing the extreme complementarity of these methods to investigate the mechanisms triggered by the plant during the drought stress event.</jats:p>

Cohabiting Plant‐Wearable Sensor In Situ Monitors Water Transport in Plant

“…After that (14:00-23:00), the sap flow rate continued to decrease with the air temperature and solar radiation fall. These phenomena were consistent with the previous reports that measurements on large plants (such as trees) using invasive or destructive approaches, [29,30,[37][38][39] however, can be successfully observed in the small herbaceous plant in a continuous and non-destructive manner using our sensor.…”

Diurnal in vivo xylem sap glucose and sucrose monitoring using implantable organic electrochemical transistor sensors

“…Organic electronic devices can be advantageous when applied in the biological milieu since organic electronic materials support sufficient electronic and ionic transport ( Paulsen et al, 2020 ), in a highly coupled manner, and thus enable efficient signal transduction. While the majority of efforts lie within the animal kingdom, applying bioelectronics to other biological organisms has emerged with successful demonstrations of sensing and actuation in bacteria ( He et al., 2012 ; Pitsalidis et al, 2018 ; Zajdel et al., 2018 ; Demuru et al., 2019 ; Di Lauro et al, 2020 ) and plants ( Stavrinidou et al., 2015 , 2017 ; Coppedè et al., 2017 ; Poxson et al., 2017 ; Bernacka-Wojcik et al, 2019 ; Janni et al, 2019 ; Kim et al., 2019 ; Vurro et al, 2019 ; Diacci et al, 2020 ). Recently, we presented an implantable organic electronic ion pump for in vivo delivery of abscisic acid, one of the main hormones involved in plant stress responses ( Bernacka-Wojcik et al, 2019 ), and subsequently the electronic control of physiology in intact plants.…”

“…Others demonstrated conformable electrodes based on conducting polymers that were directly printed on plant leaves for long term bioimpedance monitoring ( Kim et al., 2019 ). In another work, a yarn-based organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) has been used for electrolyte monitoring in tomato plants in physiological conditions ( Coppedè et al., 2017 ), while in following works, the same concept was used to monitor drought stress ( Janni et al, 2019 ) or changes in vapor pressure deficit ( Vurro et al, 2019 ). Our group coupled an OECT directly with isolated chloroplasts to monitor in real-time the glucose export from the plant organelles with unprecedented time resolution ( Diacci et al, 2020 ).…”

Diurnal <i>In Vivo</i> Xylem Sap Glucose and Sucrose Monitoring Using Implantable Organic Electrochemical Transistor Sensors

“…Organic electronic devices can be advantageous when applied in the biological milieu since organic electronic materials support sufficient electronic and ionic transport (Paulsen et al, 2020), in a highly coupled manner, and thus enable efficient signal transduction. While the majority of efforts lie within the animal kingdom, applying bioelectronics to other biological organisms has emerged with successful demonstrations of sensing and actuation in bacteria (He et al, 2012;Pitsalidis et al, 2018;Zajdel et al, 2018;Demuru et al, 2019;Di Lauro et al, 2020) and plants (Stavrinidou et al, 2015(Stavrinidou et al, , 2017Coppedè et al, 2017;Poxson et al, 2017;Bernacka-Wojcik et al, 2019;Janni et al, 2019;Kim et al, 2019;Vurro et al, 2019;Diacci et al, 2020). Recently, we presented an implantable organic electronic ion pump for in vivo delivery of abscisic acid, one of the main hormones involved in plant stress responses (Bernacka-Wojcik et al, 2019), and subsequently the electronic control of physiology in intact plants.…”

“…Others demonstrated conformable electrodes based on conducting polymers that were directly printed on plant leaves for long term bioimpedance monitoring (Kim et al, 2019). In another work, a yarn-based organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) has been used for electrolyte monitoring in tomato plants in physiological conditions (Coppedè et al, 2017), while in following works, the same concept was used to monitor drought stress (Janni et al, 2019) or changes in vapor pressure deficit (Vurro et al, 2019). Our group coupled an OECT directly with isolated chloroplasts to monitor in real-time the glucose export from the plant organelles with unprecedented time resolution (Diacci et al, 2020).…”