1. Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Treatment of Maize Grains—Induction of Growth, Enzyme Activities and Heat Shock Proteins
- Author
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Ľudmila Slováková, Anna Zahoranová, Boris Bokor, Renáta Švubová, Valéria Chobotová Kročková, Ján Renčko, Eliška Gálová, Filip Uhrin, Ľudmila Holubová, and Veronika Medvecká
- Subjects
DCSBD ,Antioxidant ,Plasma Gases ,non-thermal plasma ,glucanase ,QH301-705.5 ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Atmospheric-pressure plasma ,Nonthermal plasma ,maize ,Zea mays ,Article ,Catalysis ,Inorganic Chemistry ,Heat shock protein ,CAPP ,medicine ,HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins ,Biology (General) ,Physical and Theoretical Chemistry ,QD1-999 ,Molecular Biology ,Spectroscopy ,Plant Proteins ,Chemistry ,Organic Chemistry ,food and beverages ,Sowing ,protease ,General Medicine ,Computer Science Applications ,Hsp70 ,Comet assay ,Horticulture ,Atmospheric Pressure ,germination ,Germination ,heat shock proteins ,DNA damage ,Edible Grain ,Peptide Hydrolases ,Transcription Factors - Abstract
Zea mays L. is one of the most produced crops, and there are still parts of the world where maize is the basic staple food. To improve agriculture, mankind always looks for new, better methods of growing crops, especially in the current changing climatic conditions. Cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAPP) has already showed its potential to enhance the culturing of crops, but it still needs more research for safe implementation into agriculture. In this work, it was shown that short CAPP treatment of maize grains had a positive effect on the vitality of grains and young seedlings, which may be connected to stimulation of antioxidant and lytic enzyme activities by short CAPP treatment. However, the prolonged treatment had a negative impact on the germination, growth, and production indexes. CAPP treatment caused the increased expression of genes for heat shock proteins HSP101 and HSP70 in the first two days after sowing. Using comet assay it was observed that shorter treatment times (30–120 s) did not cause DNA damage. Surface diagnostics of plasma-treated grains showed that plasma increases the hydrophilicity of the surface but does not damage the chemical bonds on the surface.
- Published
- 2021
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