Innovative approaches are urgently required to alleviate the growing pressure on agriculture to meet the rising demand for food. A key challenge for plant biology is to bridge the notable knowledge gap between our detailed understanding of model plants grown under laboratory conditions and the agriculturally important crops cultivated in fields or production facilities.
This perspective highlights the recent development of new analytical tools that are rapid and non-destructive and provide tissue-, cell- or organelle-specific information on living plants in real time, with the potential to extend across multiple species in field applications. This study evaluates the utility of engineered plant nanosensors and portable Raman spectroscopy to detect biotic and abiotic stresses, monitor plant hormonal signalling as well as characterize the soil, phytobiome and crop health in a non- or minimally invasive manner.
This study proposes leveraging these tools to bridge the aforementioned fundamental gap with new synthesis and integration of expertise from plant biology, engineering and data science. Lastly, the study assesses the economic potential and discuss implementation strategies that will ensure the acceptance and successful integration of these modern tools in future farming practices in traditional as well as urban agriculture.
Read the complete research at www.nature.com.
Lew, T.T.S., Sarojam, R., Jang, IC. et al. Species-independent analytical tools for next-generation agriculture. Nat. Plants 6, 1408–1417 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-020-00808-7