Abstract
Plasma agriculture is an emerging technology, although the application of non-thermal plasma in wheat productivity is still in its early stage. This study deciphers the effect and mechanistic basis of non-thermal air-generated LPDBD (low-pressure dielectric barrier discharge) plasma in boosting germination, growth and nutritional properties in wheat. Seeds treated with LPDBD plasma exhibited cracked periphery and discernible expansion during seed germination. LPDBD plasma applied for 6 min showed a 22.11% increase in the germination percentage and a substantial increase in iron content in grains compared to non-treated controls. At the cellular level, the concentration of H2O2 in leaves significantly increased (3.56 µM g−1 FW) due to LPDBD treatment compared to controls. This increased level of H2O2 may act as a stimulating agent to trigger the physiological functions in wheat plants. In addition, plants sprouted from air-treated seeds exhibited a marked elevation in CAT and SOD activity accompanied by the increased expression of TaCAT and TaSOD genes in roots of wheat. Interestingly, the grain yield of wheat increased by 27.06% in response to plasma treatment compared to control. Further, grains harvested from plasma-treated plants showed a substantial elevation in iron and fat content as well as decreased moisture content that may contribute to the increased shelf life. The study will open up a new avenue for practical application of plasma in agriculture.
Highlights
For several years a huge number of people around the globe can not meet their daily food needs without charitable assistance, primarily driven by two factors: persistent instability in food price and adverse climatic events 1
Wheat seed germination and Plant growth characteristics The germination of wheat seeds was prompted by LPDBD plasma treatment
The average panicle length was improved to 19.22 cm and 18.63 cm for 9 min and 12 min treatment, which exhibited significant difference, compared to control (15.73 cm) but showed no significant difference compared to the 6 min treatment and between them
Summary
For several years a huge number of people around the globe can not meet their daily food needs without charitable assistance, primarily driven by two factors: persistent instability in food price and adverse climatic events 1. The application of cold plasma technology is new in agriculture as a viable, cost effective, eco-friendly, and non-hazardous measure by creating a new way for developing grain yield. It could act as a stimulant for the vigor of seed keeping the risk of genetic mutation at minimum, as it is based on non-ionizing low-level radiation. A number of excited, reactive oxygen and nitrogen (ROS, RNS) molecules, free radicals, ions, photons are created by plasma treatment, and the high temperature of electrons helps in generating these reactive species Plants activate their defense mechanisms such as enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants when encounter stress such as ROS and RNS (O3, OH-, H2O2, NO, NO2, O2, O) 31,32. As research on the effect of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) or nonthermal air plasma is new in wheat, the fundamental purpose of the current study is to inquire the following questions a) studying the effect of air plasma on seed germination that reduces the total number of seeds required for cultivation; b) investigating the mechanistic basis of plasma-induced improvement of wheat, and c) studying the effect of plasma on physicochemical and nutritional composition in wheat
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