Chemical intervention for enhancing growth and reducing grain arsenic
accumulation in rice
Abstract
Arsenic (As) is a ubiquitous environmental carcinogen that enters the
human food chain mainly through rice grains. In the present study, we
evaluated the potential of thiourea (TU; non-physiological reactive
oxygen species scavenger) in mitigating the negative effects of arsenic
(As) stress in indica rice variety IR64, with the overall aim to reduce
grain As accumulation. At seedling stage, As+TU treatment induced the
formation of more numerous and longer crown roots compared with As
alone. The significant reduction in As accumulation was observed in
As+TU treated seedling, which coincided with light-dependent suppression
in the expression levels of aquaporins and photosynthesis-related genes
in roots. The foliar-supplemented TU under As-stress maintained reducing
redox conditions which decreased the rate of As accumulation to flag
leaves and, eventually grain As by 0.53-fold compared with those of As
treatment. The agronomic feasibility of TU was validated under naturally
As contaminated sites of Nadia (West Bangal, India). The tiller numbers
and crop productivity (kg seed/ha) of TU-sprayed plants were increased
by 1.5- and 1.18-fold, respectively; while, grain As accumulation was
reduced by 0.36-fold compared with those of water-sprayed control. Thus,
this study established TU application as a sustainable solution for
cultivating rice in As-contaminated field conditions.