Cadmium in rice grains from a field trial in relation to model parameters of Cd-toxicity and -absorption in rice seedlings

Abstract

Selecting rice varieties that absorb less Cd from soil will reduce human health risks posed by Cd through rice consumption. Nine rice cultivars that are commonly grown in Taiwan were used for investigating genotypic differences in Cd tolerance and absorption. Hydroponic testing with Cd treatments of 5, 10, and 50 μM CdCl2 for 7-day exposure was conducted for the cultivars. The reductions in plant growth by Cd treatments were fitted to a dose-response curve; the modeling parameters, that is, the effective Cd concentration resulting in 50% reduction (EC50), were obtained. The Cd concentrations in plant were expressed by a Michaelis–Menten kinetic model and the uptake rate parameters (M/k) were obtained. A field experiment was also conducted in farmland with Cd ~0.2 mg kg−1 in soil. For the rice cultivars used in hydroponics, Cd distributions and physiological traits (CAT, H2O2, and MDA) in seedlings were related to their tolerances to Cd toxicity. Modeling parameters, EC50 and M/k, correspond to the Cd concentrations in rice plant. In the field experiment, the Cd concentrations in brown rice of the indica cultivars (i.e., TCS10, TCS17, and TNGS22) were 0.6 mg kg−1; these were significantly higher than those of the japonica cultivars (i.e. TY3, TK9, TNG71, KH145, TKW1, and TKW3). By contrast, the three cultivars, KH145, TKW1, and TKW3, whose Cd concentrations in brown rice were lower than 0.3 mg kg−1 were considered safe relative to the permissible level of 0.4 mg kg−1. In addition, for the used cultivars, Cd concentrations in brown rice were well expressed (i.e., r2 = 0.95) as a function of EC50, M/k, and MDA by using multiple regression. Newly bred cultivars could be screened rapidly with hydroponic testing to predict their Cd concentrations in brown rice when grown in the field.