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Exogenous proline activated an integrated response of NER and HR pathways to reduce DNA damage in rice seedlings under chromium stress

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Abstract

The DNA damage induced by hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] pollutant causes a genotoxic effect on rice seedlings. Hereby, we examined the effects of exogenous proline (Pro) on the alleviation of DNA damage in rice seedlings under different effective concentrations of Cr(VI). Our results revealed that Cr(VI) stress induced reactive oxygen species (ROS), i.e., H2O2 and O2·- accumulation in rice seedlings, repressed genes expression activated in the homologous recombination (HR) and nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathways, and caused DNA damage. Exogenous application of Pro increased Cr accumulation in rice roots, but decreased Cr accumulation in rice shoots, wherein Pro application decreased ROS accumulation in both tissues of rice seedlings. The comet assays suggested that exogenous application of Pro significantly alleviated the DNA damage in rice seedlings during Cr(VI) treatments, judged by the Olive tail moment and tail DNA. Transcriptional assays revealed that exogenous Pro upregulated the expression level of genes associated with the HR and NER pathways and triggered coordinated actions of both repairing pathways to modulate DNA lesion in rice plants during exposure to Cr(VI). Calculations from gene expression variation factors showed that regulative effect of exogenous application of Pro on DNA repair pathways was highly activated at 2.0 mg Cr/L. The current study revealed that Cr(VI) affect rice plants and exogenous Pro rescue these effects by the activation of HR and NER pathways.

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Data availability

The datasets supporting the conclusions of this article can be obtained from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work is financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi (No. 2018GXNSFDA281024).

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  1. Yi Kang and Qing Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Guangxi Key Laboratory of Theory & Technology for Environmental Pollution Control, College of Environmental Science & Engineering, Guilin University of Technology|, Guilin, 541004, People’s Republic of China

    Yi Kang, Qing Zhang, Yu-Xi Feng, Li Yang & Xiao-Zhang Yu

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  1. Yi Kang
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  2. Qing Zhang
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  3. Yu-Xi Feng
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  4. Li Yang
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  5. Xiao-Zhang Yu
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Contributions

Writing-original draft preparation and data analysis: Yi Kang. Writing-original draft preparation, data analysis, and visualization: Qing Zhang. Writing-original draft preparation and visualization: Yu-Xi Feng. Data analysis and visualization: Li Yang. Conceptualization, supervision, writing-reviewing and editing, and funding acquisition: Xiao-Zhang Yu. All of the authors contributed to the final review of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xiao-Zhang Yu.

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Kang, Y., Zhang, Q., Feng, YX. et al. Exogenous proline activated an integrated response of NER and HR pathways to reduce DNA damage in rice seedlings under chromium stress. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 51792–51803 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-26009-1

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