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Melatonin alleviates cadmium toxicity by reducing nitric oxide accumulation and IRT1 expression in Chinese cabbage seedlings

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Abstract

Melatonin (MT) is reported as a kind of phytohormone, exerts various biological activities, mediating plant growth and development and responding to abiotic stresses. In the present research, we examined the possibility that MT could involve in the alleviation of cadmium (Cd) toxicity by reducing the accumulation of nitric oxide (NO). The research indicated that the addition of MT significantly increased the biomass and photosynthetic parameters of plants compared with the control treated under Cd stress. Besides, we found that compared with the control treatment, MT also reduced the level of Cd-induced nitric oxide, and at the same time, the enzyme activity related to NO synthesis and the expression of related genes were decreased. In addition, MT treatment significantly reduced the Cd content in Chinese cabbage seedlings compared with the control, which was partially reversed by the addition of SNP (NO donor). PTIO (NO scavenger) addition could reduce the Cd content when seedlings were exposed to Cd stress. At the same time, compared with the Cd stress, the concentration of Cd in MT-treated plants decreased significantly, and the expression levels of related transport genes IRT1 also decreased significantly. Taken together, these results further support the idea that under the stress of Cd, NO increases the expression of IRT1, thus further increasing the absorption of Cd and aggravating the stress of Cd in plants, while exogenously added MT can inhibit the synthesis of NO, reduce the content of Cd, and alleviate the stress caused by Cd.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary information files].

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Funding

This work was supported by Special Modern Agriculture Industry Technology System Construction (CARS-23-A-03) and the National Key Research and Development Plan (2016YFD0800700-3).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China

    Tao Wang, Jinxue Song, Ze Liu, Zili Liu & Jin Cui

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  1. Tao Wang
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  2. Jinxue Song
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  3. Ze Liu
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  4. Zili Liu
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  5. Jin Cui
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Contributions

WT completed all the experiments and analyzed all the experimental data and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. SJX and LZ participated in the writing of the manuscript. LZL participated in the design and process of the experiment. CJ is the corresponding author of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jin Cui.

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Supplemental Fig. 1

Effects of foliar feeding of MT on fresh weight (A), root length (B) and Cd concentration (C) of Chinese cabbage seedlings under Cd stress. Data are means ± SE of three independent biological replicates. Bars with different letters are significantly different at P < 0.05 according to Duncan’s multiple range test. The experiments were performed three times, with similar results. The graphs depict one of three experiments. (DOCX 90 kb)

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Wang, T., Song, J., Liu, Z. et al. Melatonin alleviates cadmium toxicity by reducing nitric oxide accumulation and IRT1 expression in Chinese cabbage seedlings. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 15394–15405 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11689-w

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