DARPA, the US military’s arm responsible for developing new military technologies, is developing genetically modified plants that can detect threats and spy discreetly
The program aims to engineer plants to detect certain chemicals, pathogens, radiation, and even electromagnetic and nuclear signals, and use existing hardware such as satellites to monitor these plants.
The smart plants could have applications outside of the military too – for example to help communities identify undetonated landmines from previous conflicts and testing areas.
DARPA’s new Advanced Plant Technologies (APT) program aims to engineer plants to detect certain chemicals, pathogens, radiation, and even electromagnetic and nuclear signals, and use existing hardware such as satellites to monitor these plants
DARPA’s Advanced Plant Technologies (APT) program is looking to harness plants’ natural ability for sensing and responding to environmental stimuli, such as light levels and air pollution, and extend them with genetic modification.
According to DARPA, the military’s traditional sensors are not always optimal for certain tasks, which is one of the reasons plants are at the focus of its new project.
The program will also reduce risks posed to soldiers, and reduce costs associated with traditional sensors.
The ATP program plans to modify the genomes of plants in order to program in specific types of sensing to trigger discreet responses in the presence of certain stimuli – all while not having a negative impact on the plants’ ability to thrive.
DARPA is holding a Proposers Day for APT on December 12, 2017, in Arlington, Virginia to allow researchers to suggest ideas for which plants, stimuli and modifications should be researched.
Work on the program will start in contained laboratories and greenhouses, and simulated natural environments.
DARPA says it will follow all federal regulations, as well as have oversight from institutional biosafety committees.
And if this research is successful, field trials will be monitored by the US Department of Agriculture’s Animals and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Crucially, the program will rely on existing ground-, air-, and space-based technology to remotely monitor what the plants report – the APT wont fund the development of new hardware for the project.
Satellite systems, for example, are already capable of measuring plant’s temperature, and other systems can measure chemical composition, reluctance, and body plan.
DARPA says that if the program is successful, it will deliver a new sensing platform that is energy independent, robust, stealthy and easily distributed.
‘Plants are highly attuned to their environments and naturally manifest physiological responses to basic stimuli such as light and temperature, but also in some cases to touch, chemicals, pests, and pathogens,’ says Blake Bextine, DARPA’s Program Manager for APT.
The smart plants could have applications outside of the military too – for example to help communities identify landmines
‘Emerging molecular and modeling techniques may make it possible to reprogram these detection and reporting capabilities for a wide range of stimuli, which would not only open up new intelligence streams, but also reduce the personnel risks and costs associated with traditional sensors.’
While current genetic modification practice tend to only pursue a minimal number of modifications, DARPA plans to change multiple and complex traits to give plants new capabilities to sense and report on multiple different stimuli.
The researchers, however, will need to understand how modified plants allocate internal resources and compete in natural environments.
This is because previous similar experiments have led to the reduced health of the plants by drawing off resources needed to sustain them.
‘Advanced Plant Technologies is a synthetic biology program at heart, and as with DARPA’s other work in that space, our goal is to develop an efficient, iterative system for designing, building, and testing models so that we end up with a readily adaptable platform capability that can be applied to a wide range of scenarios,’ said Bextine.
DARPA says that if the program is successful, it will deliver a new sensing platform that is energy independent, robust, stealthy and easily distributed. Work on the program will start in contained laboratories and greenhouses, and simulated natural environments