US E OF NON - THERMAL PLASMA FOR PATHOGEN CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT ON THE BIOCHEMICAL QUALITY OF SEEDS

DEL AMO HOSPITAL C; PERÉZ PIZÁ C; BALESTRASSE KB; ZILLI CG; KELLY H; PREVOSTO L; CEJAS H

Congreso; 52 th Annual Meeting Argentine Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; 2016

Non-thermal plasma treatment is a fast, economic and pollution-free method. The objective of this study was to determine whetherdifferent non-thermal plasmas could be used for pathogen control and seed performance improvement or not. Soybean seeds wereexposed to a multi filamentous DBD discharge. The dielectric barrier of the discharge consisted in a Pertinax 2.5 mm plaque and 2 0.1mm layers of Mylar on top of which the seeds were deposited. Different gases (O2 and N2) were used to transport the active agents ofthe plasma. The seeds were irradiated for 1, 2 and 3 minutes using either O2 or N2. The fungal load and the growth of the seeds radiclewith different treatments were compared with a pathogen containing control. To study the biochemical qualities of the seeds, differentoxidative enzymes such as GPOX, SOD and CAT as well as lipid peroxidation (TBARS) and the ROS species generated weremeasured. When evaluating we observed that the 2 minutes treatment with O2 had the least increase in the activities for most of the oxidative enzymes as well as the least amount of TBARS. In addition, we saw that the 2 minutes O 2 treatment was the one with the most growth of the seeds radicle. We conclude that the 2 min O2 treatment is the most effective for the pathogen control. In addition,this treatment is the best for the improvement of the biochemical qualities of the soybean seeds.