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Nano-silicon mediated alleviation of Cd toxicity by cell wall adsorption and antioxidant defense system in rice seedlings

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Abstract

Purpose

Heavy metal, particularly cadmium (Cd) is toxic to rice growth. Studies showed that nano-silicon particles (SiNPs) can alleviate Cd toxicity. However, underlying mechanisms especially cell wall adsorption and different forms of pectin are rarely investigated.

Methods

In this experiment, the impacts of foliar application of SiNPs (2.5 mM) were investigated to alleviate Cd stress (50 μM) in rice and to study the role of SiNPs in reducing Cd-induced inhibition of plant growth, antioxidant defense systems, Cd translocation, and cell wall adsorption.

Results

The results exhibited that Cd toxicity inhibited rice growth and biomass accumulation, meanwhile leaves had high concentrations of Cd. However, foliar application of SiNPs improved root and shoot growth. Moreover, Cd concentration was reduced in the leaves of rice seedlings. The results of Fourier Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) showed that SiNPs enhanced peak values of polysaccharides. In addition, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) showed high Cd contents in the roots of rice seedlings. Cell wall showed high concentrations of Cd, moreover, enhancement of antioxidant defense mechanism and the alleviation of oxidative stress symptoms in leaves by SiNPs may be directly related to the decrease of Cd concentration in leaves.

Conclusion

Altogether, our study results show that SiNPs can alleviate Cd toxicity in rice seedlings by reducing Cd uptake and enhancing cell wall Cd adsorption and antioxidant defense system.

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Acknowledgments

This project is financially supported by the Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province (2018B020205003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-bioresources, Root Biology Center, College of Natural Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Muhammad Riaz & Xiurong Wang

  2. College of Resources and Environment, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, 510225, China

    Muhammad Riaz

  3. School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, 5005, Australia

    Muhammad Kamran

  4. Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Bioresource, College of Tropical Crops, Hainan University, Haikou, 570228, China

    Shah Fahad

  5. Department of Agronomy, The University of Haripur, Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 22620, Pakistan

    Shah Fahad

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  1. Muhammad Riaz
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  2. Muhammad Kamran
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  3. Shah Fahad
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  4. Xiurong Wang
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Contributions

M.R and X.W designed and supervised this study; M.R conducted the experiments, performed data interpretation, and drafted the manuscript; M.K, and S.F helped to revise the manuscript grammatically. M.R and X.W critically reviewed and revised the final manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xiurong Wang.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Riaz, M., Kamran, M., Fahad, S. et al. Nano-silicon mediated alleviation of Cd toxicity by cell wall adsorption and antioxidant defense system in rice seedlings. Plant Soil 486, 103–117 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05588-x

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