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.

Due to low gas temperatures and high densities of active species, atmospheric-pressure glow discharges ͑APGDs͒ would have potential applications in the fields of plasma-based sterilization, gene mutation, etc. In this letter, the genetic effects of helium radio-frequency APGD plasmas with the plasmid DNA and oligonucleotide as the treated biomaterials are presented. The experimental results show that it is the chemically active species, instead of heat, ultraviolet radiation, intense electric field, and/or charged particles, that break the double chains of the plasmid DNA. The genetic effects depend on the plasma operating parameters, e.g., power input, helium flow rate, processing distance, time, etc.

Aims:  Avermectins are major antiparasitic agents used commercially in animal health, agriculture and human infections. To improve the fermentation efficiency of avermectins, for the first time a plasma jet generated by a novel atmospheric pressure glow discharge (APGD) was employed to generate mutations in Streptomyces avermitilis. Methods and Results:  The APGD plasma jet, driven by a radio frequency (RF) power supply with water‐cooled and bare‐metallic electrodes, was used as a new mutation method to treat the spores of S. avermitilis. The plasma jet yielded high total (over 30%) and positive (about 21%) mutation rates on S. avermitilis, and a mutated strain, designated as G1‐1 with high productivity of avermectin B1a and genetic stability, was obtained. Conclusions:  Because of the low jet temperature, the high concentrations of the chemically reactive species and the flexibility of its operation, the RF APGD plasma jet has a strong mutagenic effect on S. avermitilis. Significance and Impact of the Study:  This is a proof‐of‐concept study for the use of an RF APGD plasma jet for inducing mutations in microbes. We have shown that the RF APGD plasma jet could be developed as a promising and convenient mutation tool for the fermentation industry and for use in biotechnology research.

Radio-frequency (RF), atmospheric-pressure glow discharge (APGD) plasmas with bare metallic electrodes have promising prospects in the fields of plasma-aided etching, deposition, disinfection and sterilization, etc. In this paper, an induced gas discharge approach is proposed for obtaining the RF, atmospheric-pressure, c-mode, glow discharges with pure nitrogen or air as the primary plasma-working gas using bare metallic electrodes. The discharge characteristics, including the discharge mode, the breakdown voltage and discharge voltage for sustaining a mode and/or c mode discharges, of the RF APGD plasmas of helium, argon, nitrogen, air or their mixtures using a planar-type plasma generator are presented in this study. The uniformity (no filaments) of the discharges is confirmed by the images taken by an iCCD with a short exposure time (10 ns). The effects of different gap spacings and electrode materials on the discharge characteristics, the variations of the sheath thickness and the electron number density are also studied in this paper.

The sub‐lethal effects of the radio‐frequency, atmospheric‐pressure glow discharge plasma jet on the lipase are studied. The experimental measurements show that the activity of the lipase increases significantly after treated by the plasma jet within one minute. This enhancing effect is attributed to the changes of the structures of the lipase. The chemically reactive species in the plasma jet region play a major role to the alterations of the lipase secondary and tertiary structures, compared with heat, UV radiation, charged particles, intensified electric field and/or ozone.