Applications of Shock Waves in Agriculture Research

Abstract

Controlled shock waves can be generated in any medium of interest in the laboratory using various methods. The instantaneous increase in pressure and temperature, in the medium of propagation behind a shock wave, can be used for many novel industrial applications. In this paper we describe two new applications of shock waves developed for the agriculture research. An underwater shock wave generator has been used designed, calibrated and successfully used to generate under water shock waves. About 100 J of energy is deposited between two stainless steel electrodes immersed in water for about 350 ns for generating the micro-shock waves in water. Utilizing the instantaneous jumps in pressure and temperature behind these spherical micro-shock waves in water, desired DNA has been successfully injected inside (Agrobacterium tumefaciens) cells at a measured overpressure level of 50 bar. Reporter gene assay were also recorded in tomato plants to confirm the successful transformation of the naked plasmid DNA. Thes...