The safety and quality of cereal grain supplies are adversely impacted by microbiological contamination, with novel interventions required to maximise whole grains safety and stability. The microbiological contaminants of wheat grains and the efficacy of Atmospheric Cold Plasma (ACP) for potential to control these risks were investigated. The evaluations were performed using a contained reactor dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) system; samples were treated for 0–20 min using direct and indirect plasma exposure. Amplicon-based metagenomic analysis using bacterial 16S rRNA gene and fungal 18S rRNA gene with internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region was performed to characterize the change in microbial community composition in response to ACP treatment. The antimicrobial efficacy of ACP against a range of bacterial and fungal contaminants of wheat, was assessed to include individual isolates from grains as challenge pathogens. ACP influenced wheat microbiome composition, with a higher microbial diversity as well as abundance found on the untreated control grain samples. Culture and genomic approaches revealed different trends for mycoflora detection and control. A challenge study demonstrated that using direct mode of plasma exposure with 20 min of treatment significantly reduced the concentration of all pathogens. Overall, reduction levels for B. atrophaeus vegetative cells were higher than for all fungal species tested, whereas B. atrophaeus spores were the most resistant to ACP among all microorganisms tested. Of note, repeating sub-lethal plasma treatment did not induce resistance to ACP in either B. atrophaeus or A. flavus spores. ACP process control could be tailored to address diverse microbiological risks for grain stability and safety.

谷物污染的安全性和质量受到微生物污染的不利影响，需要采取新颖的干预措施以最大程度地提高全谷物的安全性和稳定性。研究了小麦籽粒的微生物污染物以及大气冷等离子体（ACP）对控制这些风险的潜力的功效。使用包含的反应堆介质阻挡放电（DBD）系统进行评估；使用直接和间接血浆暴露处理样品0–20分钟。使用带有内部转录间隔区（ITS）的细菌16S rRNA基因和真菌18S rRNA基因进行基于扩增子的宏基因组分析，以表征响应ACP处理的微生物群落组成的变化。ACP对小麦的一系列细菌和真菌污染物的抗菌功效，被评估为包括来自谷物的单个分离物作为挑战病原体。ACP影响小麦微生物组组成，在未经处理的对照谷物样品上具有较高的微生物多样性和丰富度。培养和基因组方法揭示了检测和控制分支杆菌的不同趋势。一项挑战性研究表明，在20分钟的处理过程中使用直接暴露于血浆的方式可以显着降低所有病原体的浓度。总体而言，一项挑战性研究表明，在20分钟的处理过程中使用直接暴露于血浆的方式可以显着降低所有病原体的浓度。总体而言，一项挑战性研究表明，在20分钟的处理过程中使用直接暴露于血浆的方式可以显着降低所有病原体的浓度。总体而言，萎缩芽孢杆菌的营养细胞高于所有测试的真菌种类，而萎缩芽孢杆菌的孢子在所有测试的微生物中对ACP的抵抗力最高。值得注意的是，在致死芽孢杆菌或黄曲霉孢子中，重复的亚致死性血浆处理均未引起对ACP的抗性。可以定制ACP过程控制以解决谷物稳定性和安全性的各种微生物风险。