Effect of low-temperature plasma generated in various gases on DNA damage of barley leaves

In last decade non-thermal plasma has played a key role in many fields of industry. But recently plasma research has also focused on its application in biomedicine and agriculture. Plasma produces a wide variety of metastable particles, mainly reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen species (RNS) that have been previously proven to activate plant defense responses and to accelerate growth. Since plasma contains ROS and RNS, it is assumed that it could damage DNA. But there is just a few works aimed at potential plasma genotoxicity. In our work we focus on potential genotoxic effect of non-thermal plasma on barley, which seeds were exposed to plasma generated in different gases with various exposure times. We found out that plasma can damage DNA of barley in higher exposure times. (authors)