Bioluminescent sentinel plants enable autonomous diagnostics of viral infections.

Abstract

Plants engineered with synthetic genetic programs can transform how we monitor and manage the extension of crop pests and diseases. Here, we establish a bioluminescent platform in Nicotiana benthamiana for autonomous viral sensing based on the fungal bioluminescence pathway (FBP). We first demonstrate that recombinant viruses can deliver missing pathway components, establishing a methodological framework for spatially resolved tracking of infection dynamics. Leveraging this starting point, we develop a dual-output sentinel circuit that uses a protease-responsive bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) module to report infection through a virus-triggered spectral shift in luminescence. In the absence of infection, plants emit a stable yellow glow indicating system integrity. Upon infection with potyviruses, cleavage of the BRET fusion by the virus-encoded NIa-protease activates a distinct colour change detectable with low-cost imaging. This modular design is compatible with other pathogens carrying specific proteases and supports future multiplexing strategies. Our results highlight the potential of synthetic sentinel gene circuits as autonomous biosensors for precision crop protection.

Plant phenotyping relevance

植物のウイルス感染状態を発光・画像で検出するセンチネル回路とプラットフォームの開発が中心であり、単なる生物学的測定ではない。

Code and data availability

The article describes bioluminescent sentinel plant experiments with source data files and supplementary movies, but no public repository deposit, author analysis code URL, or public dataset is provided. BioRender links are figure schematics, and the IDT Codon Optimization Tool, GoldenBraid, and ROSCO filter pages are泛

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