Improvement of growth and yield of soybean plants through the application of non-thermal plasmas to seeds with different health status

PÉREZ-PIZÁ, MARÍA C.; PREVOSTO, LEANDRO; GRIJALBA, PABLO E.; ZILLI, CARLA G.; CEJAS, EZEQUIEL; MANCINELLI, BEATRIZ; BALESTRASSE, KARINA B.

Heliyon

Elsevier

Año: 2019 vol. 5

2405-8440

Soybean (Glycine max(L.) Merrill) is a globally important crop, providing oil andprotein.Diaporthe/Phomopsiscomplex includes seed-borne pathogens that affectthis legume. Non-thermal plasma treatment is a fast, cost-effective andenvironmental-friendly technology. Soybean seeds were exposed to a quasi-stationary (50 Hz) dielectric barrier discharge plasma operating at atmosphericpressure air. Different carrying gases (O2and N2) and barrier insulating materialswere used. This work was performed to test if the effects of non-thermal plasmatreatment applied to healthy and infected seeds persist throughout the entire cycleof plants. To this aim, lipid peroxidation, activity of catalase, superoxidedismutase and guaiacol peroxidase, vegetative growth and agronomic traits wereanalysed. The results here reported showed that plants grown from infected seeds did not trigger oxidative stress due to the reduction of pathogen incidence in seedstreated with cold plasma. Vegetative growth revealed a similar pattern for plantsgrown from treated seeds than that found for the healthy control. Infectedcontrol, by contrast, showed clear signs of damage. Moreover, plasma treatmentitself increased plant growth, promoted a normal and healthy physiologicalperformance and incremented the yield of plants. The implementation of thistechnology for seeds treatment before sowing could help reducing the use ofagrochemicals during the crop cycle.