Özet:

Recently, cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is under investigation for possibility to be applied for inactivation of pathogens in medicine, food technologies, water cleaning technologies and agriculture. The aim of the current study is to investigate the effect of CAP on microplants, propagated in vitro from plum tree (Prunus domestica L., cv. ‘Kyustendilska sinya’) naturally co-infected by M and D strains of Plum pox virus (PPV) and in that respect the possibility for CAP application for virus inactivation. In the present work, we have used two types of plasma sources for biological systems treatments: a surface-wave-sustained Argon plasma torch and an underwater diaphragm discharge. These enabled several variants of plasma treatment to be performed. Based on the data of IC-RT-PCR tests of the microplants on the third subculture after treatment, it was found the most effective variant was the reiterated plasma torch tip treatment to nodal segments without leaves in gas medium. The strain specific RT-PCR analysis results of PPV positive CAP-treated microplants showed that only PPV-M strain was identified after treatment, although the starting material was co-infected by both strains. The results obtained from IC-RT-PCR and strain specific RT-PCR of the acclimatized ex vitro plants have been in agreement with the data from molecular analyses of the microplants tested. These are the first experiments on CAP ability for inactivation of PPV from tissue of living woody plants even if in in vitro conditions. The completed estimation of this approach for obtaining of PPV-free plum plants will be made after more prolonged observation and testing of the ex vitro plants.