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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Crop Biology and Sustainability
Volume 8 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1418554
This article is part of the Research Topic Abiotic Stresses in Field Crops: Response, Impacts and Management under Climate Change Scenario View all 9 articles

Vermicompost Application Enhances Soil Health and Plant Physiological and Antioxidant Defense to Conferring Heavy Metals Tolerance in Fragrant Rice

Provisionally accepted
Anas Iqbal Anas Iqbal 1*Zhaowen Mo Zhaowen Mo 1Tian Hua Tian Hua 1Quaid Hussain Quaid Hussain 2Muhammad Adnan Muhammad Adnan 3Islem Abid Islem Abid 4Humaira Rizwana Humaira Rizwana 4Mohamed S. Elsheikh Mohamed S. Elsheikh 4Ayman E. Sabagh Ayman E. Sabagh 5Rattan Lal Rattan Lal 6Xiangru Tang Xiangru Tang 1
  • 1 South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China
  • 2 Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
  • 3 University of Swabi, Swabi, Pakistan
  • 4 King Saud University, Riyadh, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 5 Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh, Kafr el-Sheikh, Egypt
  • 6 Ohio University, Athens, West Virginia, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Cadmium (Cd) contamination in agricultural soils and its accumulation in plant organs have become a global issue due to its harmful effects on human health. The in-situ stabilizing technique, which involves using organic amendments, is commonly employed for removing Cd from agricultural soils. Thus, the current study investigated the effect of vermicompost (VC) on soil properties and plant physio-biochemical attributes, leaf ultrastructure analysis, antioxidant defense mechanisms, and grain yields of two different fragrant rice cultivars, Xiangyaxiangzhan (XGZ) and Meixiangzhan-2 (MXZ-2), under Cd-stress conditions. The results showed that Cd toxicity deteriorates soil quality, the plant’s photosynthetic apparatus, and the plant’s antioxidant defense mechanism. Moreover, under Cd stress, both cultivars produced significantly lower (P < 0.05) rice grain yields compared to non-Cd stress conditions. However, the VC application alleviated the Cd toxicity and improved soil qualitative traits, such as soil organic carbon, available nitrogen, total nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Similarly, VC amendments improved leaf physiological activity, photosynthetic apparatus function, antioxidant enzyme activities and its related gene expression under Cd stress These enhancements led to increased grain yields of both fragrant under Cd toxicity. The addition of VC mitigated the adverse effects of Cd on the leaf chloroplast structure by reducing Cd uptake and accumulation in tissues. This helped prevent Cd-induced peroxidation damage to leaf membrane lipids by increasing the activities of antioxidant enzymes such as ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and superoxide dismutase (SOD). Enhancements in leaf physiological activity and plant antioxidant enzyme activity strengthen Fthe plant's antioxidant defense mechanism against Cd toxicity. In addition, correlation analysis showed a strong relationship between the leaf net photosynthetic rate and soil chemical attributes, suggesting that improved soil fertility enhances leaf physiological activity and boosts rice grain yields. Thus, the outcomes of this study show that the addition of VC in Cd-contaminated soils could be useful for sustainable rice production and safe utilization of Cd-polluted soil.

    Keywords: Cd, cadmium, Cadmium toxicity, Fragrant rice, Leaf physiological activity, Soil fertility, Vermicompost Soil

    Received: 16 Apr 2024; Accepted: 24 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Iqbal, Mo, Hua, Hussain, Adnan, Abid, Rizwana, Elsheikh, Sabagh, Lal and Tang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Anas Iqbal, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.