Yan Huili, Peng Zhimei, Zhang Hezifan, Wang Binghan, Xu Wenxiu, He Zhenyan
Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
China National Botanical Garden, Beijing, China.
Plant Cell Environ. 2025 Jan;48(1):838-851. doi: 10.1111/pce.15182. Epub 2024 Oct 1.
Cadmium (Cd) contamination poses a threat to global crop safety. To address this issue, researchers mainly focused on the Cd, explored mechanism of accumulation to low-Cd breeding technologies and created several low-Cd varieties over the past decades. However, new challenges have emerged, particularly the yield reduction due to disturbances in mineral nutrient balance. The goals of breeding have been transferred from a primary focus on 'low-Cd crops' to 'low-Cd/nutrient-balanced' crops, which means limiting Cd content while maintaining other nutrient elements like iron (Fe), manganese (Mn) and zinc (Zn) at a proper content, thus to meet the future agricultural demands. Here, on a multielement perspective, we reviewed the mechanisms of Cd and mineral nutrient transport system in crops and summarized the research advances in Cd minimization through artificial mutations, natural variations and genetic engineering. Furthermore, the challenge of disruption of mineral nutrients in low-Cd crops was discussed and two potential approaches designing Cd-mineral nutrient-optimized artificial transporters and pyramiding Cd-mineral nutrient-optimized variations were proposed. Aiming at addressing these challenges, these approaches represent promising advancements in the field and offer potential pathways for future research and development in the creation of safe and high-quality crops.
镉（Cd）污染对全球农作物安全构成威胁。为解决这一问题，在过去几十年里，研究人员主要聚焦于镉，探索其积累机制以研发低镉育种技术，并培育出了多个低镉品种。然而，新的挑战出现了，尤其是由于矿质养分平衡受到干扰导致产量下降。育种目标已从最初主要关注“低镉作物”转变为“低镉/养分平衡”作物，这意味着在限制镉含量的同时，将铁（Fe）、锰（Mn）和锌（Zn）等其他养分元素维持在适当水平，从而满足未来农业需求。在此，从多元素角度出发，我们综述了作物中镉和矿质养分运输系统的机制，并总结了通过人工诱变、自然变异和基因工程实现镉最小化的研究进展。此外，还讨论了低镉作物中矿质养分失衡的挑战，并提出了两种潜在方法，即设计镉 - 矿质养分优化的人工转运体和聚合镉 - 矿质养分优化的变异。旨在应对这些挑战，这些方法代表了该领域有前景的进展，并为未来培育安全优质作物的研发提供了潜在途径。
