1Institute of Materials for Electronics and Magnetism (IMEM), National Research Council (CNR), Parco Area delle Scienze 37/A, 43124 Parma, Italy
2Institute of Bioscience and Bioresources (IBBR), National Research Council (CNR), Via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari, Italy
3Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Dipartimento delle Culture Europee e del Mediterraneo: Architettura, Ambiente, Patrimoni Culturali (DICEM), Via S. Rocco, I-75100 Matera, Italy
4ALSIA Centro Ricerche Metapontum Agrobios, s.s. Jonica 106 ,km 448, 2, Metaponto, MT 75010, Italy
5Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze, 11/A, 43124 Parma, Italy
| Received 16 Oct 2019 |
Accepted 05 Nov 2019 |
Published 27 Nov 2019 |
Drought stress imposes a major constraint over a crop yield and can be expected to grow in importance if the climate change predicted comes about. Improved methods are needed to facilitate crop management via the prompt detection of the onset of stress. Here, we report the use of an in vivo OECT (organic electrochemical transistor) sensor, termed as bioristor, in the context of the drought response of the tomato plant. The device was integrated within the plant’s stem, thereby allowing for the continuous monitoring of the plant’s physiological status throughout its life cycle. Bioristor was able to detect changes of ion concentration in the sap upon drought, in particular, those dissolved and transported through the transpiration stream, thus efficiently detecting the occurrence of drought stress immediately after the priming of the defence responses. The bioristor’s acquired data were coupled with those obtained in a high-throughput phenotyping platform revealing the extreme complementarity of these methods to investigate the mechanisms triggered by the plant during the drought stress event.
