To cite this version:J EhlbeckAbstract. The aim of this article is to provide a survey of plasma sources at atmospheric pressure used for microbicidal treatment. In order to consider the interdisciplinary character of this topic an introduction and definition of basic terms and procedures is given for plasma as well as for microbicidal issues. The list of plasma sources makes no claim to be complete, but to represent the main principles of plasma generation at atmospheric pressure and to give an example of their microbicidal efficiency. The interpretation of the microbicidal results remain difficult due to the non standardized methods uses by different authors and due to the fact that small variations in the set up can change the results dramatically.

The use of plasma for healthcare can be dated back as far as the middle of the 19th century. Only the development of room temperature atmospheric pressure plasma sources in the past decade, however, has opened the new and fast growing interdisciplinary research field of plasma medicine. Three main topics can be distinguished: plasma treated implants, plasma decontamination, and plasmas in medical therapy. Understanding of the plasma sources and the plasma processes involved is still incomplete. With the aim of a more fundamental insight we investigate plasmas in a) functionalization of implants with antimicrobial as well as cell attachment enhancing surfaces b) atmospheric pressure plasmas (APPs) in inactivation of bacteria, decontamination of bottles and food products, as well as medical equipment and c) APPs in medical therapy and their effects on cell viability as a means to finding a plasma "dosage". The possibilities of an application focused designing of plasma sources will be emphasized. On the example of feed gas humidity and its significant influence the importance of determining and controlling unobvious or hidden parameter is demonstrated.

Potato virus Y (PVY) is among the most economically important plant pathogens. Using cryoelectron microscopy, we determined the near-atomic structure of PVY’s flexuous virions, revealing a previously unknown lumenal interplay between extended carboxyl-terminal regions of the coat protein units and viral RNA. RNA–coat protein interactions are crucial for the helical configuration and stability of the virion, as revealed by the unique near-atomic structure of RNA-free virus-like particles. The structures offer the first evidence for plasticity of the coat protein’s amino- and carboxyl-terminal regions. Together with mutational analysis and in planta experiments, we show their crucial role in PVY infectivity and explain the ability of the coat protein to perform multiple biological tasks. Moreover, the high modularity of PVY virus-like particles suggests their potential as a new molecular scaffold for nanobiotechnological applications.

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