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Developing rapid and diverse microbial mutation tool is of importance to strain modification. In this review, a new mutagenesis method for microbial mutation breeding using the radio-frequency atmospheric-pressure glow discharge (RF APGD) plasma jets is summarized. Based on the experimental study, the helium RF APGD plasma jet has been found to be able to change the DNA sequences significantly, indicating that the RF APGD plasma jet would be a powerful tool for the microbial mutagenesis with its outstanding features, such as the low and controllable gas temperatures, abundant chemically reactive species, rapid mutation, high operation flexibility, etc. Then, with the RF APGD plasma generator as the core component, a mutation machine named as atmospheric and room temperature plasma (ARTP) mutation system has been developed and successfully employed for the mutation breeding of more than 40 kinds of microorganisms including bacteria, fungi, and microalgae. Finally, the prospect of the ARTP mutagenesis is discussed.

The Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, is heated to millions of degrees, considerably hotter than its surface or photosphere. Explanations for this enigma typically invoke the deposition in the corona of nonthermal energy generated by magnetoconvection. However, the coronal heating mechanism remains unknown. We used observations from the Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Hinode solar physics mission to reveal a ubiquitous coronal mass supply in which chromospheric plasma in fountainlike jets or spicules is accelerated upward into the corona, with much of the plasma heated to temperatures between approximately 0.02 and 0.1 million kelvin (MK) and a small but sufficient fraction to temperatures above 1 MK. These observations provide constraints on the coronal heating mechanism(s) and highlight the importance of the interface region between photosphere and corona.

This book provides a balanced and thorough treatment of the core principles, novel technology and diagnostics, and state-of-the-art applications of low temperature plasmas. It explores related phenomena, such as plasma bullets, discharge-mode transition of atmospheric pressure plasmas, and self-organization of microdischarges, and describes relevant technology and diagnostics, including nanosecond pulsed discharge, cavity ringdown spectroscopy, and laser-induced fluorescence measurement. The authors also discuss how low temperature plasmas are used in the synthesis of nanomaterials, environmental applications, the treatment of biomaterials, and plasma medicine.

In recent years, the integration of atmospheric and room-temperature plasma (ARTP) mutagenesis with droplet-based microfluidic (DBMF) technology has enabled the development of a novel high-efficiency mutagenesis and screening system. This system not only enhances microbial mutagenesis efficiency but also achieves precise screening and high-throughput detection, demonstrating broad applications in biosynthesis, fermentation engineering, biological feed production, edible fungus breeding, and environmental remediation. This review comprehensively elaborates on the principles and advantages of the system and discusses its diverse applications across multiple fields.

Current low‐temperature plasma (LTP) devices essentially use a rare gas source with a short working distance (8 to 20 mm), low gas flow rate (0.12 to 0.3 m3/h), and small effective treatment area (1‐5 cm2), limiting the applications for which LTP can be utilised in clinical therapy. In the present study, a novel type of LTP equipment was developed, having the advantages of a free gas source (surrounding air), long working distance (8 cm), high gas flow rate (10 m3/h), large effective treatment area (20 cm2), and producing an abundance of active substances (NOγ, OH, N2, and O), effectively addressing the shortcomings of current LTP devices. Furthermore, it has been verified that the novel LTP device displays therapeutic efficacy in terms of acceleration of wound healing in normal and Type I diabetic rats, with enhanced wound kinetics, rate of condensation of wound area, and recovery ratio. Cellular and molecular analysis indicated that LTP treatment significantly reduced inflammation and enhanced re‐epithelialization, fibroblast proliferation, deposition of collagen, neovascularization, and expression of TGF‐β, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase in Type I diabetic rats. In conclusion, the novel LTP device provides a convenient and efficient tool for the treatment of clinical wounds.

A possibility of studying effects of the main background ions formed by the main elements of inductively coupled plasma (H, N, O, and Ar) at the working parameters of the normal (“hot”) plasma mode by thermodynamic modeling is assessed. Such ions, responsible for the strongest spectral interferences in the mass spectra are always observed upon the injection of aqueous (“wet”) sample solutions into inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers ( ICP MS ). The quantitative composition of the main background ions in an ICP MS is calculated as a function of plasma temperature in the temperature range from 3000 to 8000 K using thermodynamic modeling. The results of modeling were compared with the experimental data on the measured mass spectra of the main background ions and a high degree of correlation between the theoretical and experimental results was shown. The agreement between the results of calculations the experimental data validates the thermodynamic model of thermochemical processes in an ICP MS used and its applicability to subsequent calculations in fulfilling analytical tasks. A possibility of the unambiguous assessment of gas-kinetic plasma temperature is confirmed by comparing the theoretical and experimental mass spectra of the main ICP background ions in a normal mode. It was found that the calculated and experimental data on the concentration of only NO + ions do not agree with the regularities noticed for the other background ions in the normal ICP mode.

In this study, plasma gas species and temperature were varied to evaluate the reactive species produced and the bactericidal effect of plasma. Nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and argon were used as the gas species, and the gas temperature of each plasma was varied from 30 to 90 °C. Singlet oxygen, OH radicals, hydrogen peroxide, and ozone generated by the plasma were trapped in a liquid, and then measured. Nitrogen plasma produced up to 172 µM of the OH radical, which was higher than that of the other plasmas. In carbon dioxide plasma, the concentration of singlet oxygen increased from 77 to 812 µM, as the plasma gas temperature increased from 30 to 90 °C. The bactericidal effect of carbon dioxide and nitrogen plasma was evaluated using bactericidal ability, which indicated the log reduction per minute. In carbon dioxide plasma, the bactericidal ability increased from 5.6 to 38.8, as the temperature of the plasma gas increased from 30 to 90 °C. Conversely, nitrogen plasma did not exhibit a high bactericidal effect. These results demonstrate that the plasma gas type and temperature have a significant influence on the reactive species produced and the bactericidal effect of plasma.

Atmospheric and Room Temperature Plasma (ARTP) mutagenesis has emerged as a novel and powerful physical mutation technology for microbial strain improvement recently. ARTP operates at atmospheric pressure and room temperature using a helium plasma jet, inducing widespread genomic mutations through reactive species and DNA damage. Compared to traditional mutagenesis methods, ARTP is safer, more efficient, and capable of producing high mutation rates without genetic modification, making it a valuable and sophisticated tool in biomanufacturing. This review outlines the principles and diverse applications of ARTP technology for enhancing enzyme activity, metabolite yields, and stress tolerance across various organisms. It also provides a comprehensive discussion of underlying biological mechanisms, workflow, optimization parameters, and potential cellular instability associated with ARTP-induced mutagenesis. Finally, current breakthroughs and future perspectives of ARTP mutagenesis are addressed, emphasizing its role in advancing next-generation microbial platforms for industrial biotechnology and environmental sustainability. Graphical Abstract

With the unique chemical and physical properties of cold atmospheric plasmas enabling their recent applications in biomedicine, plasma medicine has established itself as a new scientific field, combining plasma physics, engineering, medicine, and bioengineering. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of the non-thermal plasmas and plasma devices used in plasma medicine. Several chapters are devoted to the analysis of the mechanisms of plasma interaction with cancer and normal cells, including a description of the mechanism of plasma selectivity. As a revised and significantly expanded second edition, this text includes a detailed description of non-invasive modality, new in vivo work and adaptive plasma written by experts in these areas. This reference text also provides an up-to-date description of the field, the primary challenges and future directions. Part of IOP Series in Plasma Physics.

This paper presents the misestimation of temperature when observations from a kappa distributed plasma are analyzed as a Maxwellian. One common method to calculate the space plasma parameters is by fitting the observed distributions using known analytical forms. More often, the distribution function is included in a forward model of the instrument’s response, which is used to reproduce the observed energy spectrograms for a given set of plasma parameters. In both cases, the modeled plasma distribution fits the measurements to estimate the plasma parameters. The distribution function is often considered to be Maxwellian even though in many cases the plasma is better described by a kappa distribution. In this work we show that if the plasma is described by a kappa distribution, the derived temperature assuming Maxwell distribution can be significantly off. More specifically, we derive the plasma temperature by fitting a Maxwell distribution to pseudo-data produced by a kappa distribution, and then examine the difference of the derived temperature as a function of the kappa index. We further consider the concept of using a forward model of a typical plasma instrument to fit its observations. We find that the relative error of the derived temperature is highly depended on the kappa index and occasionally on the instrument’s field of view and response.