Oryza glumaepatula and calcium oxide nanoparticles enhanced Cr stress tolerance by maintaining antioxidant defense, chlorophyll and gene expression levels in rice.

Chromium (Cr), a potent heavy metal, threatens rice cultivation due to its escalating presence in soil from human activities. Wild rice contains useful genes for phytoremediation; however, it is difficult to use directly for metal mitigation. Here, a single segment substitution line (SSSL), SG001, was developed by crossing O. glumaepatula and Huajingxian74 (HJX) to evaluate the survival ability of plants against Cr. Further, we explored the potential effect of calcium oxide nanoparticles (CaO-NPs) (50 μM) to minimize the toxic effect of Cr (100 μM) in rice cultivars, SG001 and HJX. The findings of this study indicated that Cr toxicity led to increased oxidative stress. This was shown by higher levels of hydrogen peroxide (HO), which was increased by 104% in SG001 and 177% in HJX, and malondialdehyde (MDA) increased by 79% in SG001 and 135% in HJX. Furthermore, it also depicted that Cr toxicity considerably declined shoot and root length, shoot and root fresh weight by 30%, 27%, 25%, and 20% in SG001 and 44%, 51%, 42%, and 45% in HJX, respectively. This mitigation was evidenced by decreased Cr contents, increased calcium (Ca) levels in SG001, and the maintenance of chlorophyll, antioxidant defense, and gene expression levels. Moreover, there was a notable reduction in MDA and HO, while the defense mechanisms of key antioxidants, including ascorbate peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione, catalase, and peroxidase were upregulated, along with an increase in soluble protein contents in both rice cultivars after applying CaO-NPs. CaO-NPs effectively restored cellular and subcellular structural integrity and growth in both lines, which had been seriously disrupted by Cr toxicity. Overall, our findings suggest that SG001, in combination with CaO-NPs, could serve as an effective strategy to mitigate Cr toxicity in plants.