BLIGHTSENSE - DEVELOPMENT OF A RAPID BIOSENSOR SYSTEM FOR IN-FIELD DETECTION OF POTATO BLIGHT

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Potato late blight is one of the world's most devastating crop diseases, responsible for £3.5Bn pa global economic losses (AHDB, 2011). It is a major threat to food security, compounding the stagnating potato yields witnessed over the last decade. In the UK it costs £350/ha to control, equating to £72M pa in high-pressure blight seasons, with 430K tonne losses (TSL, 2014). In collaboration with Soil Essentials (a leading Scottish precision-farming SME), the James Hutton Institute (world-leading late blight experts), Mylnefield Research Services (JHI commercial arm) and Syngenta (Global agri-business leader), this project will develop & demonstrate a low-cost, rapid, sample-to-result biosensor device (BlightSense) for early detection of air-borne sporangia of the oomycete pathogen (P.infestans), the cause of potato late blight. This will significantly improve in-field disease risk assessment & control, in order to increase crop marketable yield & quality. BlightSense will incorporate low-cost, antibody-coated sensing consumables with a proven (Rotarod) air-sampling spore trap, with a view to producing a fully integrated wireless product to be placed at various locations in the field to help map the blight risk. The proprietary sensing element excites acoustic waves inside small 'buckets', which have the dual role of capturing the spores and bringing them into contact with microscopic vibrations that can decode the presence of spore particles. A continuous mode of operation is envisaged throughout the growing season with weekly consumable replenishment. Depending on the detection performance required by the farmer, the sensing device will bring 3 levels of specificity: Level 1 (based on size separation); Level 2 (based on shape recognition) and Level 3 (highly specific antibody-capture). The system will generate a wireless signal with information about the size and frequency of the vibrations, which in turn flag the presence of P. infestans sporangia when they bind to the sensor surface. Combined with other sensors in the field, this data (disseminated via GSM) can indicate pathogen sources and direction to a very high probability. Due to the efficient contact between the spore and the sensor devices the system will provide near real-time feedback to a superior level of accuracy than currently available systems.To support sustainability, as a platform technology, the underpinning acoustic sensing device can be adapted by changing the size of the acoustic elements and the specific type of adjoining materials, which are carefully optimised for monitoring other air-borne and water-borne environmental pollutants, with wide applicability not only within agriculture, but other diagnostic industries such as healthcare and biodefence.