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Influence of Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma on Pea Seeds: DNA Damage of Seedlings and Optical Diagnostics of Plasma

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Abstract

Cold atmospheric pressure plasma treatment is currently being explored as an alternative way to improve the germination and growing parameters of plant seeds. However, it is important to pay attention to the effect of plasma treatment on DNA damage of the seeds as well as detailed characteristics of plasma composition and parameters. The aim of this work was to study the DNA damage of plasma-treated pea seeds (Pisum sativum L.) and plasma parameters such as the chemical composition of plasma gaseous compounds and plasma radiation. Seeds were treated with plasma using the diffuse coplanar surface barrier discharge generated in different working gases (ambient air, nitrogen, oxygen and different mixtures of oxygen and nitrogen) at atmospheric pressure and at 60 s, 180 s and 300 s exposure times. DNA damage was studied using the single cell-gel electrophoresis called the comet assay and the plasma parameters were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and optical emission spectroscopy. Experiments in different ratios of oxygen and nitrogen were realized in order to understand the reaction mechanism between the ambient air plasma and the treated seeds. Based on our results, ambient air plasma appears to be the most advantageous for the plasma treatment due to no significant DNA damage because of the proper combination of plasma composition in combination with water vapor present in ambient air.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the Contract No. APVV-16-0216, Project VEGA 1/0410/18 and the University Grant UK/366/2019.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental Physics, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University, Mlynská dolina F1, 842 48, Bratislava, Slovakia

    J. Tomeková, V. Medvecká & A. Zahoranová

  2. Department of Genetics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Ilkovičova 6, Mlynská dolina, 842 15, Bratislava, Slovakia

    S. Kyzek & E. Gálová

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  1. J. Tomeková
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Contributions

JT: diagnostics of plasma—Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, optical emission spectroscopy: data measurements and analysis, writing—first draft preparation; SK: DNA damage analysis, writing—first draft preparation; VM: plasma treatment of seeds, writing—review and editing; EG: DNA damage analysis, writing—review and editing; AZ: plasma diagnostics, writing—first draft preparation, review and editing.

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Correspondence to J. Tomeková.

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Tomeková, J., Kyzek, S., Medvecká, V. et al. Influence of Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma on Pea Seeds: DNA Damage of Seedlings and Optical Diagnostics of Plasma. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 40, 1571–1584 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-020-10109-8

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