Molybdenum-Induced Regulation of Antioxidant Defense-Mitigated Cadmium Stress in Aromatic Rice and Improved Crop Growth, Yield, and Quality Traits

Cadmium (Cd) stress causes serious disruptions in plant metabolism, physio-biochemical responses, crop yield, and grain quality characteristics. A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the role of molybdenum (Mo) in mitigating Cd-induced adversities on plant growth, yield attributes, and grain quality characteristics of a popular aromatic rice cultivar ‘Xiangyaxiangzhan’. The Mo was applied at 0.15 mg kg−1 soil in both control (no Cd) and Cd-contaminated (100 mg kg−1) soils. A treatment with Mo-free (−Mo) soil was also maintained for comparison. The results showed that Cd toxicity significantly (p < 0.05) reduced plant dry biomass, grain yield, photosynthetic efficiency, and pigment contents, and impaired chloroplast ultra-structural configuration and simultaneously destabilized the plant metabolism owing to higher accumulation of hydrogen peroxide, electrolyte leakage, and malondialdehyde contents. However, Mo supply improved grain yield and 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline content by 64.75% and 77.09%, respectively, under Cd stress, suggesting that Mo supply mitigated Cd-provoked negative effects on yield attributes and grain quality of aromatic rice. Moreover, Mo supply enhanced photosynthesis, proline, and soluble protein content, and also strengthened plant metabolism and antioxidant defense through maintaining higher activities and transcript abundance of ROS-detoxifying enzymes at the vegetative, reproductive, and maturity stages of aromatic rice plants under Cd toxicity. Collectively, our findings indicated that Mo supply strengthened plant metabolism at prominent growth stages through an improved enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant defense system, thereby increasing grain yield and quality characteristics of aromatic rice under Cd toxicity.