Scientists at Syngenta, working with Swiss technology company Vivent Biosignals, have developed a novel method to listen to soybean plants as they respond to stink bug attacks, offering the possibility of detecting damaging infestations days before visible symptoms appear.
Their latest findings, published in Nature Scientific Reports, demonstrate how plant electrophysiology can reveal real‑time distress signals in crops under pest pressure. The research is the newest milestone in a multi‑year collaboration exploring how electrical signals inside plant tissue can help farmers respond faster to threats.
“Using extracellular plant electrophysiology, we can hear what is going on in the plant,” said Syngenta Fellow Anke Buchholz, who led the study. “The plant is communicating with ion fluxes and, in principle, we are listening from the outside.”
Turning electrical signals into early‑warning data
Although scientists have been experimenting with plant electrophysiology for more than a century, the complexity and volume of the raw data long made meaningful interpretation nearly impossible. But machine learning and AI have changed the equation.
“No human could handle and decode these signals, see the difference, and translate it,” Buchholz explained. That’s where Vivent’s biosignal‑sensing devices come in; capturing, analysing, and classifying the electrical pulses plants emit when their environment changes.
In this case, researchers monitored soybean plants as the Neotropical brown stink bug (Euschistus heros) attacked. The technology measured the plants’ stress levels in real time and then tracked how they responded when treated with an effective crop protection product.
A tiny pest with outsized impact
Fully grown, E. heros is no larger than a fingernail, resembling a miniature brown shield with legs. But its impact can be devastating.
In central and South America, the pest has become one of soybeans’ most persistent enemies. Stink bugs stunt young plants and leave pods shrivelled, contributing to the estimated 21% of global soybean production lost annually to pests and pathogens.
Compounding the challenge, stink bug damage can remain invisible for up to a week; plenty of time for an infestation to spread across a field. Earlier detection could save growers billions in lost yield, wasted inputs, and delayed interventions.
Informing the next generation of crop protection
By “listening” to what happens inside soybean plants the moment they are pierced by stink bug mouthparts, Syngenta’s researchers can now study crop responses – and product performance – in unprecedented detail.
“Electrophysiology helps us identify products that are better suited to farmers’ needs in preventing crop damage from pest and disease threats,” Buchholz said. “As well as demonstrating which research offers provide the best solution, it will also inform the development of the next generation of crop protection.”
The approach could eventually support real‑time pest monitoring tools in farmers’ fields, providing alerts long before human eyes can spot the problem.
For now, the breakthrough marks a new frontier in crop science: letting plants speak and finally being able to understand what they’re saying.
