Cluster Research: Sensors for Plant Disease Detection
The Emerging Plant Disease and Global Food Security cluster team develops and deploys innovative in-field sensor, bioinformatic and geospatial data analytics platforms for early plant disease surveillance on tomato. We arel developing cost-effective sensor platforms for monitoring physical, chemical, environmental, and biomolecular parameters of crops that are signatures for disease or abiotic stress. The data generated from these field-portable and plant-wearable sensor platforms will be collected via wireless technology on smartphones and integrated with a bioinformatics and geospatial database to populate a cloud-based Plant-Aid database (PAdb) of biotic and abiotic plant stress in crop fields. Such data can subsequently be quickly scaled-up, enabling alerts to be sent to growers of new outbreaks via geospatial visualization tools. This information will empower growers to respond to biotic attackers more rapidly with appropriate management strategies. We will target important fungal, oomycete, bacterial, and viral pathogens and their vectors on tomatoes and test the technology on laboratory, greenhouse and field experiments. Our technologies will be scalable to other crops. This digital smart phone- based technology is innovative and will impact every area of the food and agriculture sector as these sensors can be scaled for detection of food borne human, animal or insect pests, and other pathogens of importance to US agriculture.
Read about the lab’s collaboration with the Dr. Qingshan Wei’s lab at NC State on new detection techniques for plant disease including a recent paper in Nature Plants on VOC sensors and a recent publication on microneedle extractions
Check out the interview with my graduate student and DEPP Extension Specialist Inga Meadows and PSI Executive Director Adrian Piercy on our GRIP4PSI project here
See the great new video on our sensor project created by Inga Meadows and Duncan McSorley, August 2021
Outbreaks: Tackling Emerging Plant Diseases that Threaten Food Security January 10, 2020, 1-7PM The Emerging Plant Disease and Global Food Security Cluster held a symposium in January to highlight the innovative research of the cluster team. The cluster works to improve both local and global efforts to manage emerging pests and pathogens that threaten crop production and lead to food insecurity. NC State has a strong history in conducting international agricultural research and outreach. Many emerging “armed and dangerous” plant diseases and pests threaten US and global agriculture and reported outbreaks have become more severe with trade and changing climate. See the EBD Program here.
Funding Sources
Qingshan Wei (PI), Jean Ristaino, Yong Zhu Alper Bozkurt. 2023. Multifunctional Leaf Wearable Sensor for Continuous Plant Physiology Monitoring. USDA NIFA $617,500.
Ristaino, J., Wei, Q. and Jones, C. 2022. Deployment and field testing of a sensor integrated platform for monitoring emerging Phytophthora diseases. APHIS Farm Bill. $273,187.
Ristaino, J., Wei, Q. and Jones, C. 2021. A Data Driven and Sensor Integrated Platform for Monitoring Emerging Phytophthora Diseases with VOC and MN Patch Sensors. APHIS Farm Bill. $308,123.
Ristaino, J., Wei, Q. and Jones, C. 2020. A Data Driven and Sensor Integrated Platform for Monitoring Emerging Phytophthora Diseases with VOC and MN Patch sensors. APHIS Farm Bill. $301,048.
Ristaino, J., Wei, Q. and Jones, C. 2019 A Data Driven and Sensor Integrated Platform for Monitoring Emerging Plant Diseases with VOC and MN Patch sensors. USDA APHIS Farm Bill. $338, 322.
Wei, Q. and Ristaino, J. 2020. Rapid Crop DNA Extraction and Genotyping by Microneedles. BASF Company, $1,105,875 ($339,045 to date).
Ristaino, J., Wei, Q., Zhu, Y. Whitfield, A., Rotenberg, D., Rasmussen, D., Meadows, I. Zering, K., Scheller, R., and Jones, C. 2019 Plant-Aid: A data driven and sensor integrated platform for monitoring emerging plant diseases. Grip4PSI, $536,250.
Wei, Q., Ristaino, J. and Parsons, G. 2018. Smartphone-Based Leaf Volatile Profiling for Noninvasive Diagnosis of Plant Pathogens. USDA AFRI Eager, $200,000
Wei, Q. and Ristaino, J. 2017. A field -portable thermoplasmonic plant DNA extraction device for emerging plant disease diagnosis. Kenan Institute for Science and Technology. $60,000.