PFI-TT: Sensing Stress-Induced Chemical Fingerprints Emitted by Plants Using a Network of Electronic Noses

创新伙伴关系-技术转化（PFI-TT）项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将在于加强粮食安全、环境以及健康和劳动力安全。该项目是建立一种远程可操作、网络化、低成本、快速、敏感和选择性的检测方法的第一步，该方法可以识别田间和储存环境中的植物病害。植物病害每年在世界范围内造成高达30%的产量损失。为了保持产量，农民依靠杀菌剂来保护他们的作物免受病原体感染。主食作物的几种主要病原体在摄入时会产生对人类和动物极其危险的毒素。本项目以小麦和大麦赤霉病为研究对象。这项技术的成功商业化可以转化为更高的作物产量、减少环境污染和改善人类健康条件。该转化研究和技术开发项目将促进对植物在各种胁迫条件下释放的挥发物的理解，并开发所需的传感器技术和数据处理技术，以检测特定的植物挥发物，从而在可见症状之前诊断胁迫。PFI团队将收集在受控环境下暴露于特定疾病胁迫下的植物释放的挥发物，并将分析样本，以确定具有高影响的胁迫类型的挥发物指纹，特别是由真菌镰刀菌引起的小麦赤霉病。PFI团队还将改进传感器设计，使其能够在现场环境中进行差分测试（样品与清洁空气），并提高传感器对常见环境变化的响应免疫力。植物生物学、化学、电气工程和数据科学领域的创新将汇集在一起，使这项技术成功商业化。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project will be on enhancing food security, the environment, as well as health and workforce safety. The proposed project is the first step to make a remotely operable, networked, low-cost, fast, sensitive, and selective detection method that identifies plant diseases in field and storage settings. Plant diseases cause up to 30% yield loss worldwide on an annual basis. To preserve yield, farmers rely on fungicide application to protect their crops from pathogen infections. Several major pathogens of staple crops produce toxins that are extremely hazardous to humans and animals when ingested. In this project, Fusarium Head Blight in wheat and barley will be targeted. Successful commercialization of this technology may translate into higher crop yield, reduced environmental pollution, and improved conditions for human health.The proposed translational research and technology development project will advance the understanding of volatiles released by plants under various stress conditions and develop the required sensor technology and data processing techniques to detect specific plant volatomes to diagnose stress before visible symptoms. The PFI team will collect volatiles released from plants exposed to specific disease stress under controlled settings and will analyze the samples to identify the volatomic fingerprint for the types of stress with high impact, specifically Fusarium Head Blight in wheat caused by the fungus Fusarium graminearum. The PFI team will also improve the sensor design to enable differential testing (sample vs. clean air) capability in the field environment as well as increase the immunity of the sensor response to common environmental changes. Innovation in the fields of plant biology, chemistry, electrical engineering, and data science will be brought together to enable the successful commercialization of this technology.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.