THIS PROPOSAL WILL DEVELOP AND DEPLOY "WEARABLE" (I.E., NON-DESTRUCTIVE, LEAF-MOUNTABLE) SENSORS FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF WATER TRANSPORT DYNAMICS IN MAIZE. THE SENSORS WILL BE USED TO ENABLE A HIGH-THROUGHPUT PHENOTYPING PLATFORM THAT DEMONSTRATES THE SENSORS' ABILITY TO DISCRIMINATE AMONG MAIZE GENOTYPES FOR PLANT WATER TRANSPORT DYNAMICS. THE NEW SENSORS WILL ADVANCE PLANT SCIENCES AND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN A MANNER SIMILAR TO HOW WEARABLE HUMAN BODY SENSORS HAVE ADVANCED HUMAN HEALTH AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES.TWO TYPES OF SENSORS TO BE DEVELOPED AND DEPLOYED IN FIELD RESEARCH PLOTS: A RELATIVE HUMIDITY (RH) SENSOR AND LEAF WATER CONTENT SENSOR. THE RH SENSOR WILL MEASURE HUMIDITY AND TEMPERATURE AT THE LEAF SURFACE, AND CAN SELF-ADJUST ITS SIZE AND SHAPE TO ADAPT TO THE GROWTH OF LEAVES. THE LEAF WATER CONTENT SENSOR WILL BE DEVELOPED USING ADVANCED MICRO-ELECTRO-MECHANICAL SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY, AND WILL MEASURE LEAF THICKNESS AND WATER CONTENT. IN YEARS ONE AND TWO, THE SENSORS WILL BE CALIBRATED AND VALIDATED. IN YEARS TWO AND THREE, 400 OF EACH TYPE OF SENSOR WILL BE DEPLOYED ACROSS 50 MAIZE HYBRIDS IN REPLICATED PLOTS. EACH HYBRID, SELECTED FROM THE GENOMES TO FIELDS INITIATIVE (G2F), INCLUDES 24+ SITE-YEARS OF YIELD, WEATHER AND PHENOTYPE DATA FROM LOCATIONS SPANNING ARIZONA TO NY. USING SENSOR AND GRAIN YIELD DATA GENERATED DURING THE PROJECT IN COMBINATION WITH YIELD AND WEATHER DATA FROM THE G2F SITE-YEARS, WE WILL TEST THE ASSOCIATION OF VARIATION IN WATER TRANSPORT DYNAMICS WITH VARIATION OF YIELD AND YIELD STABILITY AMONG HYBRIDS AND IN RELATION TO ENVIRONMENTAL PARAMETERS.