Applications of low-temperature plasma technology in microalgae cultivation and mutant breeding: A comprehensive review

Low-temperature plasma (LTP) has gained significant attention recently due to its unique properties and potentially wide applications in agriculture, medicine, and food industry. Microalgae have become important to human life since they provide raw materials and bioactive products to industries. This review especially examines how LTP technology can be utilized to enhance microalgae growth and production of various metabolites and bioactive compounds such as astaxanthin, biofuel, lipid, proteins, and polysaccharides through mutagenesis and/or stimulation. Also, this review suggests that LTP may be combined with multi-omics tools such as proteomics, transcriptome, metabolomics and advanced methods such as single-cell analysis techniques to provide a promising strategy for acquiring desirable strains in algal mutant breeding and for enhancing the production of bioactive compounds in the microalgae. By shedding light on the benefits and applications of LTP, we hope to inspire new solutions to the challenges of commercial-scale microalgae development.