Hydrogen sulfide promotes copper nanoparticles tolerance in rice by maintaining oxidative metabolism, cell morphology and gene expression.

BACKGROUND

Copper oxide nanoparticles (nCuO) are widely used in electronics, energy storage, biomedicine, and various other fields. However, few studies have investigated their impact on the environment and crop growth.

RESULTS

Here, we employs rice as a model organism to investigate the effects of nCuO on rice growth at the physiological, biochemical, cellular, and molecular levels, and CuSO4 used as the control. The results indicated that treatment with nCuO and CuSO4 significantly decreased rice plant height, fresh weight, and cell length. Furthermore, transcriptome analysis, RT-qPCR, and the external application of sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS) demonstrated that hydrogen sulfide (H2S) enhanced the antioxidant capacity of rice by regulating the expressions of heavy metal ion transporter OsIRT2, metallothionein OsMT2a, and other related genes, and reduced the accumulation of Cu ions in plant, thus, improving the resistance of rice to nCuO and CuSO4.

CONCLUSION

This study revealed that nCuO caused damage to plants similar to free copper ions and exogenous H2S could improve rice resistance to nanomaterial and heavy metal stress at the physiological and molecular levels, offering a theoretical basis and reference for improving rice stress resistance and quality.