Non-thermal plasma enhances the quality of soybean plant

C. ZILLI; M. C. PÉREZ PISÁ; E. ANSELMO; J. LACASA; H. KELLY; L. PREVOSTO; K. BALESTRASSE

CABA

Congreso; Reunión conjunta de Sociedades en Biociencias; 2017

Soybean is one of the most important crops worldwide. According to FAOSTAT, thiscrop production and harvested area has dramatically increased over the last 2 decades. Different strategies have been developed with the aim of improving seedquality. Non-thermal plasma (NTP) treatment is a fast, economic and pollution-free method. The objective of this study was to determine whether different non-thermal plasmas could be used to enhance seed performance.Soybean seeds were exposed to a multi filamentous DBD discharge. The dielectricbarrier of the discharge consisted in a Pertinax 2.5 mm plaque and 2 0.1 mmlayers of Mylar and 3 Ternophase 0.4 mm plaques on top of which the seeds weredeposited. Different gases (O2 and N2) were used to transport the active agents of the plasma. The seeds were irradiated for 1 minutes using either O2 or N2. To study the qualities of the plant, different oxidative stress markers and biometrical parameters were assayed.The evaluated treatments demonstrated an increase in germinative power andvigor. In this work, we found that leaf area, plant weight and chlorophyll content. were increased by the NTP treatments. In addition, we observed that the NTP treatments had an increase in the activities for most of the oxidative enzymes; on the other hand, TBARS content was not modified respect to the control. We conclude that this environmentally friendly technology is a good method for the improvement of the biochemical qualities of the soybean seeds and increases the crop production.