Subcellular mechanism of microbial inactivation during water disinfection by cold atmospheric-pressure plasma.

Although the identification of effective reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by plasma has been extensively studied, yet the subcellular mechanism of microbial inactivation has never been clearly elucidated in plasma disinfection processes. In this study, subcellular mechanism of yeast cell inactivation during plasma-liquid interaction was revealed in terms of comprehensive factors including cell morphology, membrane permeability, lipid peroxidation, membrane potential, intracellular redox homeostasis (intracellular ROS and HO, and antioxidant system (SOD, CAT and GSH)), intracellular ionic equilibrium (intracellular H and K) and energy metabolism (mitochondrial membrane potential, intracellular Ca and ATP level). The ROS analysis show that ·OH, O, ·Oand HO were generated in this plasma-liquid interaction system and ·Oserved as the precursor of O.