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Cadmium contamination and toxicity on plants and human health is a major problem in China. Safe rice production in Cd-contaminated alkaline soils, with acceptably low Cd levels and high yields, remains an important research challenge. To achieve this, a small-scale field experiment with seven different soil amendment materials was conducted to test their effects performance. Two best-performing materials were selected for the large-scale field experiment. Combinations of humic acid, foliar, and/or soil silicon fertilization and deep or shallow plowing were designed. It was found that the combination, including humic acid, soil and foliar silicate fertilization, and shallow plowing (5–10 cm), produced the most desirable results (the lowest soil bioavailable Cd, the lowest grain Cd concentrations, and the highest grain yield). Rice farmers are therefore recommended to implement this combination to attain high grain yield with low Cd concentrations in alkaline soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme weather and global warming are drastic agricultural issues causing water scarcity. Under these conditions, it is vital to select drought-tolerant hybrid super rice breeds to enhance the rice yield in dry areas. In the current study, a dry-shed experiment was carried out in 2019–2020 to analyze the root growth, gene expression, and enzyme activity of hybrid rice Deyou4727, its parent (Dexiang074B * Chenghui727), taking IR64 as a universal control. Results showed that Deyou4727 and its maintainer line Dexiang074B produced more roots (30–50 cm soil) and higher enzymatic activity than IR64 during the drought stress period, indicating a good drought-tolerant capacity for Deyou4727. The distribution and morphology of the root system in Deyou4727 were inherited by the maintainer line Dexiang074B, which was confirmed by the high upregulation of DRO1 and OsPIN1b gene expression and the sharing of the same ORF region in both the hybrid rice varieties. However, the DRO1 gene ORF study showed that, in the case of the control IR64, 'A' was missing at the 4th exon of the DRO1 gene, which may explain the shallow and weak root architecture system of IR64. The drought-tolerance capacity of Deyou4727 can be used in the future as a drought-resistant germplasm for breeding more drought-tolerant hybrid rice varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]