System and method for real-time crop management

A method for selective crop management in real time, wherein said method comprises steps of:

• a. producing a biosensor plant comprising steps of:
• i. identifying at least one candidate visual marker encoding gene within a plant detectable via a sensor;
• ii. identifying at least one candidate gene allele responsive to the status of at least one parameter or condition of said biosensor plant or its environment;
• and
• iii. generating biosensor plants comprising said reporter gene operably linked to the regulatory region of said gene allele responsive to the status of at least one parameter or condition of said biosensor plant or its environment, via targeted genome modification technique, preferably, homology-directed repair (HDR), is indicative of at least one characteristic associated with the biosensor and detectable by a sensor system configured for detecting said one or more visual marker, said visual marker is designed for selectively detecting in real time said characteristic associated with the biosensor plant and/or at least one parameter associated with the biosensor plant condition, via said sensor;
• b. growing said biosensor plant or a plurality of said biosensor plants in a target area distributed in proximity to or in mixture with a plurality of commercially valuable crop plants absent of said modified genomic locus;
• c. acquiring image data of the target area comprising the plurality of said biosensor plants in proximity or in mixture with a plurality of commercially valuable crop plants absent of said modified genomic locus, via said sensor and processing said data to generate a signal indicative of the phenotypic expression of the reporter gene allele of said biosensor plant;
• and
• d. communicating said signal to an execution unit communicably linked to the sensor, said execution unit is capable of exerting in real time a selective monitoring and/or treatment responsive to said status of said parameter or condition of the biosensor plant or its environment, to at least a portion of the target area comprising said biosensor plants in mixture with said plurality of crop plants absent of said modified genomic locus, said treatment is in direct or negative correlation with the expression of said visual marker in said biosensor plants.

A system for selective crop management in real time, wherein said system comprises:

• a. at least one sensor configured for acquiring image data of a biosensor plant, said biosensor plant comprises a visual biomarker, said biomarker is encoded by a preselected reporter gene allele having a phenotype detectable by a sensor, said reporter gene is operably linked to a regulatory region of a preselected gene allele responsive to at least one parameter or condition of said plant or its environment;
• such that the expression of said reporter gene phenotype is indicative of the status of said at least one parameter or condition of said biosensor plant or its environment, said sensor is further configured for generating a signal indicative of the expression of said characteristic in said plant;
• and
• b. an execution unit operably linked to the sensor, said execution unit is capable of communicably receiving said signal from said sensor and applying in real time a selective treatment to said target area comprising said biosensor plants, said treatment is being responsive to said signal and correlated with said characteristic of said biosensor plant.