Abstract
We have quantitatively investigated the oxidative inactivation process of Penicillium digitatum spores including intracellular nanostructural changes through neutral oxygen species with a flux-defined atmospheric-pressure oxygen radical source, using fluorescent confocal-laser microscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results suggest that neutral oxygen species, particularly ground-state atomic oxygen [O(3Pj)], which is an effective species for inactivating P. digitatum spores, inhibit the function of the cell membrane of spores without causing major superficial morphological changes at a low O(3Pj) dose of ∼2.1 × 1019 cm−2 under an O(3Pj) flux of 2.3 × 1017 cm−2 s−1, following the oxidation of intracellular organelles up to an O(3Pj) dose of ∼1.0 × 1020 cm−2. Finally, intracellular nanostructures are degraded by excess oxygen radicals over an O(3Pj) dose of ∼1.0 × 1020 cm−2.
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