Non-thermal plasma (NTP) is a novel and promising technique in the agricultural field that has the potential to improve vegetal material by modulating the expression of various genes involved in seed germination, plant immune response to abiotic stress, resistance to pathogens, and growth. Seeds are most frequently treated, in order to improve their ability to growth and evolve, but the whole plant can also be treated for a fast adaptive response to stress factors (heat, cold, pathogens). This review focuses mainly on the application of NTP on seeds. Non-thermal plasma treated seeds present both external and internal changes. The external ones include the alterations of seed coat to improve hydrophilicity and the internal ones refer to interfere with cellular processes that are later visible in metabolic and plant biology modifications. The usage of plasma aims to decrease the usage of fertilizers and pesticides in order to reduce the negative impact on natural ecosystem and to reduce the costs of production.

Thirty-one varieties of wheat cultivated in Romania were analyzed regarding the genetic diversity and physicochemical properties, including the following determinations: moisture, ash, protein, wet gluten, lipid, starch content, falling number and damaged starch, considering the particularity of each species, its biological status and origin. The physicochemical data showed that the wheat samples presented large variability. The physicochemical properties of wheat flour were assessed by multivariable data analysis, using principal component analysis (PCA). All wheat samples clustered together according to their physicochemical data showed an association between all wheat species. The protein and ash contents were more related to the ancient wheat species, while the amounts of starch and damaged starch were associated with the modern ones. Positive correlations were obtained between protein and wet gluten content and between lipid and ash content. ISSR markers were used to analyze and compare genetic diversity among selected wheat cultivars. The obtained data were analyzed using NTSYSpc software considering the coefficients of similarity (Jaccard) and dissimilarity (Neighbor joining). The Jaccard coefficients varied from 0.53 to 1, reflecting the high genetic diversity characteristic of all wheat varieties.