PlantRing: A high-throughput wearable sensor system for decoding plant growth, water relations, and innovating irrigation.

Abstract

The integration of flexible electronics with plant science has generated various plant-wearable sensors, yet challenges persist in their application to real-world agriculture, particularly in high-throughput settings. Overcoming the trade-off between sensing sensitivity and range, adapting sensors to a wide range of crop types, and bridging the gap between sensor measurements and biological understandings remain primary obstacles. Here, we introduce PlantRing, an innovative, nano-flexible sensing system designed to address these challenges. PlantRing employs bio-sourced carbonized silk georgette as the strain-sensing material, offering an exceptional detection limit (0.03%-0.17% strain, depending on sensor model), high stretchability (tensile strain up to 100%), and remarkable durability (season-long use). PlantRing effectively monitors plant growth and water status by measuring organ circumference dynamics, performing reliably under harsh conditions, and adapting to a wide range of plant species. Applying PlantRing to study fruit cracking in tomato and watermelon has revealed a novel hydraulic mechanism characterized by genotype-specific excess sap flow within the plant to fruiting branches. Its high-throughput application has enabled large-scale quantification of stomatal sensitivity to soil drought-a long-standing aspiration in plant biology-facilitating the selection of drought-tolerant germplasm. Combining PlantRing with a soybean mutant has led to the discovery of a potential novel function of the circadian clock gene GmLNK2 in stomatal regulation. More practically, integrating PlantRing into feedback irrigation achieves simultaneous water conservation and quality improvement, signifying a paradigm shift from reliance on experience or environmental cues to plant-based feedback control. Collectively, PlantRing represents a groundbreaking tool poised to revolutionize botanical studies, agriculture, and forestry.

Plant phenotyping relevance

PlantRingは植物器官の周径変化を測定し、成長・水分状態・気孔感度などの表現型を高スループットに取得するウェアラブルセンサーシステムであり、センサー開発と実証が研究の中心です。

Code and data availability

The supplied blocks describe PlantRing sensor measurements and mention 'Supplemental Code 1' for temperature calibration, but no public repository, deposit, or authors' URL for data or code is provided. The only URL present is the CC BY-NC-ND license link, which is not a paper-specific asset.

No evidence-backed public reproduction asset is currently recorded.