The Greenhouse Project Cucumber R&D Project

Greenhouse Project -Monitoring Soil and Atmospheric BVOCs in Tomato Plants

Making Informed Decisions & Confronting Nature’s Complexity

Further Context: CIO Summit 2024 Presentation from Cucumber The decisions organisations make regarding the optimal utilisation of natural resources are based on data, experience and intuition. Often the information used in that decision-making is incomplete and there is ‘loss of information’. With advancements in nanotechnology and smart materials a new realm of data is being made more accessible. Our aim is to realise this vision within the primary industries – “Molecules to Meaning”.

Cucumber’s future direction focuses on going much deeper: capturing and analysing data at a molecular level, identifying biophysical patterns, providing context, to combine with your existing data to help provide meaningful insights. Ultimately, we aim to support our clients in scaling the informational stratum to enable more informed decisions.

The Need to Scale the Bio-informational Stratum & Conserve Information

Why?

This report provides a brief overview of the Greenhouse Project's focus on addressing loss of information when it comes to the optimal governance of natural resources and elements of the bioeconomy. By experimenting with atmospheric and soil-based VOC monitoring, we aim to explore the territory of “molecules to meaning” through an AIoT system that provides context to biophysical signalling and facilitate decision-support.

Criticality of Strategic Experimentation

“10% of Budget to Experimentation…” - Fidelma Russo, CTO, Hewelt Packard

The Greenhouse Project aims to explore the utility of VOCs emitted by tomato plants as indicators of health and environmental conditions. By focusing on sesquiterpenes, a unique class of terpenes derived from the mevalonic acid pathway, we seek insights into plant communication and stress responses.

VOCs are organic compounds released by plants that play crucial roles in defence mechanisms, signalling, and ecosystem interactions. Understanding these emissions can enhance agricultural practices by providing real-time health assessments of crops. Tomato plants emit various VOCs, including terpenes like isoprene, monoterpenes, and sesquiterpenes. These compounds are pivotal for plant communication and stress responses, making them valuable indicators in greenhouse environments.

Our Laser Focus: Terpenes

Terpenes are a diverse class of VOCs emitted by plants. They include:

1. Isoprene (C5H8): A major BVOC emitted during photosynthesis.

2. Monoterpenes (C10H16): Emitted from stored supplies, active at night and day.

3. Sesquiterpenes (C15H24): Highly reactive and unique in their biosynthetic origin.

Uniqueness of Sesquiterpenes

• Biosynthetic Origin: Derived from the mevalonic acid pathway, unlike other terpenes which use the MEP pathway.

• Compartmentalization: Synthesis occurs across multiple cell compartments, highlighting complex biogenesis.

• Functional Diversity: Serve as deterrents for herbivores and pathogens, attractants for pollinators, and signaling molecules.

Smarter Biomonitoring: Conversational AIoT & Interoperability with Spectral Data, IoT Hubs, ML Models, and Combinatorics Models. NINA interfaces with VOC sensors to interpret real-time phyto-signals, delivering high-context updates that directly interfaces to domain-specific technical sources on BVOC biophysical signaling and relevant journals.

Interim Results: Hexanol as a Useful Biogenic Proxy

Hexanol, an oxygenated sesquiterpene, has shown strong correlations with tomato health. This finding underscores the potential of VOC monitoring for early detection of stressors like aphid attacks or water deficits.

Inferences so far

The Greenhouse Project demonstrates that VOCs, particularly sesquiterpenes, offer valuable insights into plant health and environmental conditions. Future research should explore advanced measurement techniques and expand on hexanol's role as a proxy indicator.

Next steps

• Enable forecasting of plant yield based on biophysical signalling

• Seek to understand the ‘hidden links’ between soil and atmospheric BVOCs and environmental conditions

• Seek to improve the sensing platform and technology by achieving higher specificity

• Release whitepaper once results have been collated and some causality within the system is inferred from the results