Plasma-produced gas helps protect plants from pathogens



Researchers have used plasma, a fourth state of matter found in the flash of lightning and the dance of auroras, to create a gas that may trigger plant immunity against contagious illnesses.

The research was presented on June 24 in PLOS One by the researchers from Tohoku University in Japan.

Sugihiro Ando, associate professor in the Graduate School of Agricultural Science at Tohoku University and the paper's lead author, said that chemical pesticides are currently the mainstay of disease prevention in agriculture but that they can contaminate the soil and destroy the ecosystem. "Technologies for preventing plant diseases must be created if we are to create a sustainable agricultural system. Plant immunity is one of the most efficient ways to prevent disease since it makes use of plants' natural resistance and has no effect on the environment."

The researchers created dinitrogen pentoxide, a reactive nitrogen species, using their previously created apparatus that creates plasma from the air (RNS). This chemical shares characteristics with reactive oxygen species (ROS), including the ability to harm cells and set off particular stress reactions in living things.

Reactive species are well known to play a significant signaling role in plants' immunological responses, but dinitrogen pentoxide's precise physiological role is little understood, according to Ando. "When plants detect an infectious stimulus from a disease, they create reactive species as a defense reaction. The reactive species that are produced serve as signaling molecules that help to activate plant immunity."

Ando claims that reactive species are connected to plant hormones that control plant immunity, such as salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, and ethylene, but that the physiological role of dinitrogen pentoxide is poorly understood.

Because reactive species are known to play a significant role in plant immunity, researchers looked into whether exposing plants to dinitrogen pentoxide gas could improve their ability to resist illness.

Thale cress, a tiny plant frequently employed as a model organism for scientific research, was exposed to dinitrogen pentoxide gas for 20 seconds each day for three days by the researchers. One of the three common plant pathogens—a fungus, a bacterium, or a virus—was then introduced to the plants. While the bacterium-infected plants had a similar rate of growth to the control plants, the fungus- or virus-infected plants demonstrated inhibited advancement of the infection.

Depending on the type of pathogen, these findings imply that dinitrogen pentoxide gas exposure could manage plant disease, according to Ando.

A genetic research showed that the gas selectively stimulated the ethylene and jasmonic acid signaling pathways, which Ando claimed may have contributed to the reported disease resistance. The gas also appeared to lead to the manufacture of antimicrobial compounds. Dinitrogen pentoxide gas can be employed to boost plant defenses and combat infections, according to Ando. "Without the use of specific materials, the gas can be created using plasma technology from air and energy. When the gas is dissolved in water, it can also be turned into nitric acid, which is then applied to plants as fertilizer. As a clean technology with little negative effects on the environment, this technology can assist in the development of a sustainable agricultural system."

The researchers will then investigate how their technology functions with crops and in greenhouse farming.

Tohoku University

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