Impiego di acqua attivata al plasma nel contenimento di alcune malattie infettive delle piante

The world population exponentially growth needs an agricultural productivity increasing and a decrease of diseases which frequently affect the productions. A recent approach to increase agricultural productivity, with a lower impact on the environment and ecosystem, is the use of plasma activated water (PAW), that is produced from the interaction between a gas phase plasma and water leading to the formation of numerous reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) that influence metabolic pathways in plants. To evaluate the effectiveness and the applicability of PAW to control the spreading of infectious insect transmitted plant diseases, different pathosystems were investigated. Field-grown grapevines and plums infected with yellows diseases associated with the presence of phytoplasmas and hazelnut potted plants infected by Apple mosaic virus (ApMV) were treated with PAW. The number of infected plants and selected agronomically important parameters were evaluated, resulting in a higher agronomic performance and in a reduced number of new infections in the grapevine plants infected with phytoplasmas. No effects were highlighted on virus-infected hazels treated by PAW while the thermotherapy and shoot tip culture resulted effective in virus elimination.