Picture Perfect Defence: Detecting Diseases with Photos

A poster divided into five blocks entitled “Picture Perfect Defence: Detecting Diseases with Photos”.

• The first block has a wilted plant. The written content is: A PLANT'S INVISIBLE ENEMY - Bacterial wilt is a disease that affects plants, caused by a harmful germ or “bacterium” called Ralstonia solanacearum. This bacterium multiplies in the roots of the plant and spreads to the rest of the plant, blocking the flow of water up the stem. This causes the
  plant to wilt and eventually die. Bacterial wilt affects lots of plants, including tomatoes.
• The second block has an inquisitive researcher looking at a plant with a magnifier. The written content is: EYE SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE - When a tomato plant has the disease, the only way to work out how sick it is, is to look at the plant and see how much it has wilted. However, this method is not very reliable as different people may have different
  opinions. That's why scientists are trying to find better ways to measure how bad the disease is.
• The third block has a tomato plant, a photography camera and a computer. The written content is: SAY CHEESE! SNAPPING PHOTOS TO MEASURE DISEASE - Some scientists have come up with a clever idea to measure bacterial wilt in plants. They take photographs of tomato plants before and after they become infected with the bacteria. They put these images into a computer program that can tell them some information about the plants. For example, the computer program can measure the size of the plant, the width of the stem, and other characteristics. By looking at these measurements, the scientists can tell how bad the disease is. They can even tell if a plant is sick much earlier than just by looking at it.
• The fourth block has the written content: SPOTTING SICK PLANTS IN A FLASH - By using this technique, they can find out which plants are sick and separate them from the healthy ones. This helps stop the disease from spreading and causing more damage. It also saves valuable resources like water because they don' t waste it on plants that will die and not grow any tomatoes. Using this computer program also saves lots of money because it's much quicker and cheaper than humans doing it, so we can make cheaper food for everyone.
• The fifth block has a person taking photos of a plant. The written content is: SUPER SCIENTISTS SAVING PLANTS - In the future, the scientists want to use this technique to learn more about why some plants get sick while others stay healthy. This knowledge will help us grow healthier crops in the future. They also want to use photographs and computer programmes like this to study other plant diseases.

The footnote has a QR code and the following link: https://www.sebiology.org/resource/tpj-editor-choice-picture-perfect-non-destructive-image-based-phenotyping-of-
bacterial-wilt-severity-in-tomato.html