Study of the Effect of Plasma-Activated Water Generated by Different Sources on Ca2+ Signalling in Arabidopsis thaliana

Increasing evidence indicates that water activated by plasma discharge, termed as plasma-activated water (PAW), can promote plant growth and enhance plant defense responses. prelinimary results of the potential involvement of calcium as intracellular messenger in the transduction of PAW by plants. To study the signalling pathways activated in plants in response to PAW , Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings stably expressing the bioluminescent Ca2+ reporter aequorin were irrigated with PAW generated by different plasma torches and by a Dielectric Barrier Discarge source. In this contribution we present characteristics of the different sources as well as preliminary results on their effect on Ca2+ . In particular the dynamics of the recorded Ca2+ signals are discussed in terms of the wide range of operational conditions of the different sources, cryogenic PAW storage and its dilution.