Research HighlightsFrom Satellite to Cell Phone: Detecting Soybean Infections Through Technology
Highlights:
- InnerPlant scientists have developed a soybean genetic trait that indicates fungal infection by the plant’s fluorescence.
- The California-based company plans to use satellite imagery of plant fluorescence to alert farmers earlier of infection, so they can protect yield sooner.
- These new soybeans are commercially available in two states, and will expand as more seeds are available.
By Carol Brown
When a person is ill, they can describe their symptoms to a doctor, allowing the physician to diagnose and prescribe necessary medications for healing. When soybeans are unwell, they need a little more help. Scientists at InnerPlant have developed a way for soybeans to signal to farmers that they are ailing.
The ag technology company based in Davis, California, is using soybean fluorescence to detect fungal disease via satellite imagery to help farmers combat infection as early as possible. The project is supported with Soy Checkoff funding from the United Soybean Board.
“Our goal is to detect plant stress at scale and the best way to do this is from space,” says Sean Yokomizo, vice president of communications at InnerPlant. “With very large soybean fields, it’s difficult to scout them by walking, driving a tractor, or even with a drone. But a satellite can detect our engineered soy plants’ signaling, which is an indicator of stress.”
All plants naturally fluoresce because of chlorophyll. When a satellite gathers images of crops through existing technologies like Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, or NDVI, the amount of detected chlorophyll coincides with the health of the plant. Less chlorophyll generally equals unhealthy plants.
“This is great science, but it’s a lagging indicator. By the time the satellite imagery shows low chlorophyll, the plants are sick and it’s too late,” he says.
The team is using a genetically engineered signal to be a leading indicator of soybean health.
“When the satellite passes over the soybean field, we get a signal that says, ‘Within the last 48-72 hours, I got infected by a fungus. Can you do something about it?’” says Yokomizo. “This signal will come several weeks before farmers can spot it visually, providing plenty of time for action before yields are impacted.”
Fluorescence is Not Glow-in-the-Dark
“We’ve heard people say that our plants glow in the dark, but that’s not accurate,” Yokomizo explains. “Fluorescence is different than glowing. Glow in the dark is when the sun hits an object with a photon, the object grabs the photon and slowly emits it over time. Fluorescence is fundamentally different. The fluorescent protein takes the photon, ‘ingests it’ and then releases a totally different photon in another wavelength – new light.”
In response to a fungal infection, the soybean plant activates its immune system and turns on certain genes, creating a protein that emits photons at a specific wavelength. The InnerPlant scientists are splicing this trait into the soybean so when it’s infected, the new light will be seen through satellite imagery.
Through tests in the lab and in research plots, this light can be detected very early in the plant’s growth, Yokomizo says, sometimes as early as cotyledon emergence, but plants this small can’t emit enough fluorescence for a satellite to capture. The happy medium between stress fluorescence and satellite imagery is the late vegetative growth stage, which is earlier than when farmers traditionally apply fungicide at R3.
Ground (and Space) Truthing
Since the company’s founding in 2018, they have been working on tying their signal to a plant’s physiological response and detecting it in daylight.
“We first worked on proving the science, which we have done,” Yokomizo says. “In 2024, we started growing a commercial soybean crop with this new trait in small fields in Illinois. We are scaling that to a larger commercial rollout of soybeans this year through our CropVoice network.”
CropVoice is the trademarked system for these newly engineered soybeans. The company is growing these soybeans in a network of sentinel plots in Illinois and Nebraska and using on-the-ground equipment to detect infections in the fields via fluorescence. Farmers that subscribe to the CropVoice network are then notified of trouble through a text message, email, or the John Deere Operations Center. They also receive bi-monthly crop reports from InnerPlant’s area field agronomists.
This communication system is an outcome of farmer feedback, which has been part of InnerPlant for several years. The company created InnerCircle, a community comprised of nearly 100 farmers across the country. InnerPlant scientists converse regularly with the group to learn what farmers want and the best ways to connect the company’s science to farm management.
Future Plans
InnerPlant is working with commercial seed companies to expand availability of the soybeans with this disease-indicating fluorescence trait. To use satellite imagery as a detection tool, entire, large fields will need to have the new soybeans growing. But in the meantime, the technology is there and ready to be implemented.
Additionally, InnerPlant scientists are in the lab developing similar traits in corn. Insect stress detection is also in their future plans.
“We are market-driven and our farmer network tells us what traits are most important to them,” Yokomizo comments. “We want to make sure that whatever crop or trait we’re working on actually delivers value to farmers.”
Additional Resources
InnerPlant website
InnerPlant Satellite Detection at Global Scale – YouTube video
Published: Sep 8, 2025
The materials on SRIN were funded with checkoff dollars from United Soybean Board and the North Central Soybean Research Program. To find checkoff funded research related to this research highlight or to see other checkoff research projects, please visit the National Soybean Checkoff Research Database.
