Influence of Atmospheric Pressure Torch Plasma Irradiation on Plant Growth
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Influence of Atmospheric Pressure Torch Plasma Irradiation on Plant Growth
Yusuke Akiyoshi1, Nobuya Hayashi2, Satoshi Kitazaki3, Kazunori Koga3, Masaharu Shiratani3 1 Faculty of Science and Engineering, Saga University, 1 Honjo-machi, Saga, 840-8502, Japan 2 Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu University, 6-1 Kasugakoen, Kasuga-shi, Fukuoka 816-8580 3 Graduate School and Faculty of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
ABSTRACT Growth enhancement characteristics of plants are investigated using an atmospheric discharge plasma. Atmospheric pressure plasma torch is consisted of alumina ceramics tube and the steel mesh electrodes wound inside and outside of the tube. The growth enhancement was observed in the length of stem and root of plants after the plasma irradiation to seeds. The stem length increases approximately 2.8 times after the cultivation time of 24 h. And the effect is found to be maintained for 40 h, after sowing seeds. The mechanism of the growth enhancement would be the redox reaction inside plant cells induced by oxygen radicals. INTRODUCTION Recently, the growth enhancement of living bodies such as cells, microorganisms, and plants has been studied utilizing electrical pulses1-3 and discharge plasmas4-6, When seeds of plants such as radish sprout are irradiated with discharge plasma, the growth speed of the sprout is observed to be accelerated throughout its lifetime. Figure 1 shows typical example of the growth enhancement. The radish sprouts on the upper left of Fig.1 is control. The resulting growth speed is approximately twice of the original speed. Stress responses against impact, heat, and light are general reactions of plants and animals in order to survive and adapt to changes in their surrounding environments. Stress responses that have been maintained for long periods, i.e., on the order of a lifetime, would relate to the genome. The above stresses would modify the structures of the genome such as DNA, RNA, and transcription factors. Transcription factors are kinds of protein that transcribe genome information from DNA to RNA, which are activated by external stresses like heat and impact. One of the candidates of the growth enhancement mechanism is associated with heat shock factors (HSFs) or anti oxidation factor (Nrf2). HSFs generate heat shock proteins and Nrt2 produces anti oxidation protein when a living body receives external stresses, and accelerate cell growth for survival against the stresses. The control of plant growth by external stresses is possible by the modification of the structures of above transcription factors. The switch of the transcription factors would be the cystein-cystine redox reaction7 of thiol compounds such as thioredoxin and Gultathione in the transcription factors forming disulfide bonds8. Therefore, thiol compounds are major substances that cope with external stresses to living bodies. In this
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Tungsten wire
Alumina tube
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Seeds
Fig.1 Typica
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