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

• Published in: Plants (Basel) 2021-10, Vol.10 (11), p.2331
• Main Authors: Cheng, Pengfei, Wang, Jun, Zhao, Zhushan, Kong, Lingshuai, Lou, Wang, Zhang, Tong, Jing, Dedao, Yu, Julong, Shu, Zhaolin, Huang, Liqin, Zhu, Wenjiao, Yang, Qing, Shen, Wenbiao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accumulation; Adenosine triphosphatase; Agricultural production; Amylose; Antioxidants; Cadmium; Clean technology; Crops; field quality; Gene expression; Genes; Germplasm; Grain size; Heavy metals; Hydrogen; hydrogen nanobubble water; hydrogen-based agriculture; Irrigation; Irrigation water; Macrophages; Morphology; Particle size; Pesticides; Potassium; Protein transport; Proteins; Rice; Rice fields; Seeds; Transcription
• ISSN: 2223-7747; 2223-7747
• DOI: 10.3390/plants10112331

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 ( ) for cellular proliferation, ( ) for grain width, ( ) for grain length and width, ( ) for grain width and weight, and down-regulation of negatively correlated gene ( ) 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 ( ), ( and ), and ( ), and for decreasing Cd accumulation in grain, including down-regulated ( ). 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.