SBIR/STTR Award attributes
No commercial technologies exist to image the transfer of charge in real-time through plant/microbial interactions. It has been previously recognized that microbial biofilms may represent a parallel network for the control of charge through the environment including soils and sediments. This scope of work will extend this recognition of the control of charge by biofilms to the growth and development of plants. The previously developed microbial sensor system developed for subsurface environments will be applied to biofilm interactions with plants both above and below ground. Large arrays of potentiometric sensors will deployed both above and below ground surface for imaging real-time charge transfer in 3-D. A portable, laboratory-grade instrument will be designed, fabricated and tested to bioimage the charge transfer through a plant roots, stem, leaves). The design of the system will allow both laboratory and field investigations at a final cost structure to be affordable of many researchers in the field. The final system will allow researchers to study variable the inputs to plants sun,exposure, moisture, nutrient concentrations) to determine the impact to plant growth and development with the primary goal of optimizing the biomass produced for the given inputs.
