PlasSeed: Gas Plasma for Seed Disinfection

为了跟上世界人口增长的步伐，全球作物产量需要到2050年翻一番，而全球气温上升和气候变化造成的新的不稳定天气模式使这一要求更具挑战性。为了在对环境影响最小的情况下应对这一挑战，必须通过战略和技术进步提高农业土地的生产力。种子传播的病原体攻击发育中的幼苗，损害发芽和植物建立，并最终降低作物产量。因此，种子需要消毒，这通常通过用或不用化学添加剂清洗种子、用杀真菌剂涂覆种子或将发芽的幼苗浸泡在杀真菌剂浸液中来实现。这些方法具有有限的适用性，因为它们可能影响种子的发芽，并且它们不能有效地治疗所有疾病。此外，由于对化学剂使用的更严格的监管控制，种子公司需要替代的消毒种子的方法，而不会对种子的活力产生负面影响。PlasSeed提出使用气体等离子体技术作为一种新的和潜在的革命性的种子消毒方法。气体等离子体已被证明具有广泛的抗菌性能，该技术为现有的种子消毒技术提供了一种无化学品，干燥，低能耗的替代方案。

In order to keep pace with the world's expanding population, global crop yields are required to double by 2050 and this requirement is made even more challenging by the rising global temperatures and emerging erratic weather patterns caused by climate change. To meet this challenge with minimal environmental impact, it is imperative that the productivity of agricultural land is increased through strategic and technological advances. Seed-borne pathogens attack developing seedlings, compromising germination and plant establishment and ultimately reducing crop yield. As a result, seeds need to be disinfected and this is typically achieved by washing seeds with or without chemical additives, coating the seeds with fungicide, or soaking germinating seedlings in fungicide drenches. Such approaches have limited applicability as they can affect the germination of the seed and they are not effective in treating all diseases. In addition, due to stricter regulatory controls on the use of chemical agents, seed companies are in need of alternative means of disinfecting seeds without negatively affecting their viability. PlasSeed proposes the use of gas plasma technology as a novel and potentially revolutionary means of disinfecting seeds. Gas plasma has been shown to have a broad range of antimicrobial properties and the technology offers a chemical-free, dry, low-energy alternative to existing seed disinfection techniques.