Plants (Oct 2021)

Molecular Hydrogen Increases Quantitative and Qualitative Traits of Rice Grain in Field Trials

  • Pengfei Cheng,
  • Jun Wang,
  • Zhushan Zhao,
  • Lingshuai Kong,
  • Wang Lou,
  • Tong Zhang,
  • Dedao Jing,
  • Julong Yu,
  • Zhaolin Shu,
  • Liqin Huang,
  • Wenjiao Zhu,
  • Qing Yang,
  • Wenbiao Shen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10112331
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 11
p. 2331

Abstract

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How to use environmentally friendly technology to enhance rice field and grain quality is a challenge for the scientific community. Here, we showed that the application of molecular hydrogen in the form of hydrogen nanobubble water could increase the length, width, and thickness of brown/rough rice and white rice, as well as 1000-grain weight, compared to the irrigation with ditch water. The above results were well matched with the transcriptional profiles of representative genes related to high yield, including up-regulation of heterotrimeric G protein β-subunit gene (RGB1) for cellular proliferation, Grain size 5 (GS5) for grain width, Small grain 1 (SMG1) for grain length and width, Grain weight 8 (GW8) for grain width and weight, and down-regulation of negatively correlated gene Grain size 3 (GS3) for grain length. Meanwhile, although total starch content in white rice is not altered by HNW, the content of amylose was decreased by 31.6%, which was parallel to the changes in the transcripts of the amylose metabolism genes. In particular, cadmium accumulation in white rice was significantly reduced, reaching 52% of the control group. This phenomenon was correlated well with the differential expression of transporter genes responsible for Cd entering plants, including down-regulated Natural resistance-associated macrophage protein (Nramp5), Heavy metal transporting ATPase (HMA2 and HMA3), and Iron-regulated transporters (IRT1), and for decreasing Cd accumulation in grain, including down-regulated Low cadmium (LCD). This study clearly showed that the application of molecular hydrogen might be used as an effective approach to increase field and grain quality of rice.

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