Improvement in cadmium tolerance of edible rape (Brassica rapa L.) with exogenous application of chitooligosaccharide

- COS alleviated the toxic effect of Cd and improved the morpho-physiology of plants.
- COS significantly decreased the Cd concentrations both in shoots and roots of plants.
- Foliar application with COS under Cd tress enhanced antioxidant enzymes activities.
- COS modified Cd subcellular distribution and enhanced Cd fixation to vacuoles.

Cadmium (Cd) is one of the most toxic heavy metals, which is readily taken up by plant roots and has deleterious effects on crop yield and quality. The study investigated the potential cross-protection roles of chitooligosaccharide (COS) in alleviating Cd toxicity in edible rape (Brassica rapa L.) under greenhouse conditions. The results demonstrated that spraying COS onto the leaves of edible rape could promote the plant growth and leaf chlorophyll contents, decrease the malondialdehyde (MDA) level in leaves as well as the Cd2+ concentration in shoots and roots of edible rape under Cd stress. Moreover, exogenous COS could obviously enhance the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POX) in edible rape leaves under Cd-toxicity. The alleviation effect of COS on Cd stress was concentration-dependent and COS of 50-100 mg L−1 showed the best activity. Subcellular distribution experiments further revealed that COS of 50 mg L−1 decreased the proportion of Cd in the organelle fraction of leaves by 40.1% while increased the proportion of Cd in the soluble fraction by 13.2%. These results indicated that COS had a potential to enhance plant resistance to Cd through promoting antioxidant enzyme activities and altering Cd subcellular distribution.