Modulation of Cadmium Tolerance in Rice: Insight into Vanillic Acid-Induced Upregulation of Antioxidant Defense and Glyoxalase Systems

Abstract

Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic heavy metal that enters the human food chain from the soil via plants. Increased Cd uptake and translocation in plants alters metabolism andreduces crop production. Maintaining crop yield therefore requires both soil remediation andenhanced plant tolerance to Cd. In this study, we investigated the effects of vanillic acid (VA) on Cd accumulation and Cd stress tolerance in rice (Oryza sativa L. cv. BRRI dhan54). Thirteen-day-old rice seedlings treated with CdCl2 (1.0 and 2.0 mM) for 72 h showed reduced growth, biomass accumulation, and water and photosynthetic pigment contents, as well as increased signs of oxidative stress (elevated levels of malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide, methylglyoxal, and lipoxygenase) and downregulated antioxidant and glyoxalase systems. Cadmium-induced changes in leaf relative turgidity, photosynthetic pigment content, ascorbate pool size, and glutathione content were suppressed by VA under both mild and severe Cd toxicity stress. The supplementation of VA under Cd stress conditions also increased antioxidant and glyoxylase enzyme activity. Vanillic acid also increased phytochelatin content and the biological accumulation factor, biological accumulation co-efficient, and Cd translocation factor. Vanillic acid, therefore appears to enhance Cd stress tolerance by increasing metal chelation and sequestration, by upregulating antioxidant defense and glyoxalase systems, and by facilitating nutrient homeostasis.

Coumarin improves tomato plant tolerance to salinity by enhancing antioxidant defence, glyoxalase system and ion homeostasis

“…The COU pre‐treatment not only reduced the ROS level (indicated by biochemical and histochemical detection of H 2 O 2 ) and lipid peroxidation but also enhanced membrane stability. Similarly, alleviation of oxidative stress in plants through exogenous phenolic compounds has been reported previously (Li et al 2013; El‐Soud et al 2013; Ozfidan‐Konakci et al 2019; Parvin et al 2019a; Bhuyan et al 2020).…”

“…However, higher GST activity induced by salt increased with COU pre-treatment, while GST also performs a detoxification function through increasing plant stress tolerance. Similar to COU, both VA and Qu also gave similar results in stress-affected plants (Parvin et al 2019a(Parvin et al , 2020Bhuyan et al 2020).…”

“…such phytoprotectant-induced reduced oxidative stress (Hasanuzzaman et al 2018;Bhuyan et al 2020;Mohsin et al 2020). Hasanuzzaman et al (2018) and Ali et al (2017) also reported significant negative correlations among antioxidant enzymes and stress markers in alleviating paraquat and salt stress, respectively, while enzymatic antioxidants and the AsA-GSH pool were positively associated, as corroborated in the present study.…”

SA-Mediated Regulation and Control of Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Rice

“…It has been reported that metals such as cadmium and arsenate can cause an increase in GPX activity while reducing GST activity indicating that there was no detoxification of lipid peroxidation in exposed rice ( Oryza sativa L. cv. BRRI dhan54) plants [ 78 ].…”

Role of Exogenous and Endogenous Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) on Functional Traits of Plants Under Heavy Metal Stresses: A Recent Perspective

“…Moreover, mitigating effects of NaHS have been further up-scaled by antioxidant activity and osmotic adjustment to minimize membrane oxidative damage. Methylglyoxal (MG), a cytotoxic metabolic by-product of glycolytic pathways, usually interacts with macromolecules to trigger protein inactivation and induces oxidative damages to plant under abiotic stress, such as heavy metals ( Hoque et al, 2016 ; Bhuyan et al, 2020 ). In maize, Cr tolerance of young seedlings was linked to the suppression of NADPH oxidase activity, resulting in restricted ROS accumulation following exogenous application of NaHS ( Kharbech et al, 2020 ).…”