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Biochar and melatonin alleviate microplastic–cadmium (MP-Cd) stress in rice by enhancing antioxidant activity and regulating Cd transport
Original title: Biochar and melatonin alleviate microplastic–cadmium (MP-Cd) stress in rice by enhancing antioxidant activity and regulating Cd transport
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Microplastics and cadmium (a toxic heavy metal) in soil can build up in rice plants, threatening both crop yields and the safety of the food supply. This study found that combining biochar (a charcoal-like soil additive) with melatonin significantly helped rice plants resist this pollution—boosting their natural defenses while blocking cadmium from being absorbed into the plant tissue we eat. While this research was done in controlled conditions rather than real-world farms, it points to a promising, low-cost strategy for growing safer rice in increasingly polluted soils.
BACKGROUND: Soil contamination by microplastics (MPs) and heavy metals (HMs), particularly cadmium (Cd), poses an emerging threat to agricultural sustainability, food safety, and human health. Although the individual effects of MPs and Cd on crop performance have been widely investigated, their interactive impacts on rice remain poorly understood. Biochar (BC) and melatonin (MT) have recently attracted attention for their capacity to alleviate HM toxicity and abiotic stress in plants; however, their combined potential to mitigate MP-Cd co-stress has not yet been explored. This study aimed to evaluate the individual and enhanced effects of BC and MT on rice growth, physiological and molecular responses, Cd bioavailability, and soil properties under MP-Cd co-contamination. RESULTS: Exposure to Cd (20 mg kg⁻¹) and MPs (1%) significantly inhibited rice growth and productivity by inducing oxidative stress, enhancing Cd uptake and accumulation, suppressing chlorophyll biosynthesis, and impairing water and nutrient acquisition. In contrast, the combined application of BC (2%) and MT (100 µM) markedly alleviated these adverse effects and outperformed individual amendments. Co-application substantially increased chlorophyll content (82%), leaf relative water content (48.47%), antioxidant enzyme activities (57.84-99.42%), proline accumulation (49.21%), and endogenous melatonin (EM) levels (48.35%). At the molecular level, BC + MT treatment upregulated antioxidant-related genes (OsAPx6, OsCAT, OsPOD, and OsSOD), the proline biosynthesis gene OsP5CS, and the MT biosynthesis gene OsCOMT, while significantly downregulating Cd transporter genes (OsNRAMP1 and OsHMA3). Furthermore, this combined treatment reduced soil Cd bioavailability and Cd accumulation in rice tissues, while improving soil fertility by increasing nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and soil organic carbon (SOC). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides the first evidence that the combined application of BC and MT effectively mitigates the detrimental effects of simultaneous MP and Cd contamination in rice. The enhanced physiological, molecular, and soil-level improvements induced by BC and MT collectively enhance rice growth and productivity under MP-Cd stress. These findings highlight a promising, integrated remediation strategy to manage co-pollution of MPs and HMs in agricultural soils, with important implications for sustainable crop production and food security.
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Researchers investigated whether melatonin could mitigate the combined toxicity of cadmium and microplastics in agricultural soils to restore rice growth and yield. The study found that melatonin treatment modulated plant physiological function, reduced cadmium uptake, and improved soil properties, offering a promising approach to help crops withstand multi-contaminant stress from both heavy metals and microplastics.
Additional file 1 of Co-application of biochar and melatonin enhances rice resilience to combined lead and microplastics stress via modulating antioxidant defense, hormonal regulation, gene expression, and soil quality
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I'm not able to write an accurate summary here because the text provided is just a supplementary file placeholder ("Supplementary Material 1"), not the actual research content. The title suggests this study looked at whether adding biochar (a charcoal-like soil additive) and melatonin to soil can help rice plants better withstand pollution from lead and microplastics—both of which can end up in food and pose health concerns for people who eat contaminated crops. To write an accurate TLDR, I'd need the full abstract or paper text describing the actual methods and results. Could you share that content?
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