Abstract::
The emerging field of hydrogen biology has to date mainly been applied in medicine. However, hydrogen biology
can also enable positive outcomes in agriculture. Agriculture faces significant challenges resulting from a growing
population, climate change, natural disasters, environment pollution, and food safety issues. In fact, hydrogen agriculture is
a practical application of hydrogen biology, which may assist in addressing many of these challenges. It has been
demonstrated that hydrogen gas (H2) may enhance plant tolerance towards abiotic and biotic stresses, regulate plant growth
and development, increase nutritional values, prolong the shelf life, and decrease the nitrite accumulation during the storage
of vegetables, as well as increase the resilience of livestock to pathogens. Our field trials show that H2 may have a promising
potential to increase yield and improve the quality of agricultural products. This review aims to elucidate mechanisms for a
novel agricultural application of H2 in China. Future development of hydrogen agriculture is proposed as well. Obviously,
hydrogen agriculture belongs to low carbon economy, and has great potential to provide “safe, tasty, healthy, and highyield”
agricultural products so that it may improve the sustainability of agriculture.
How to use environmentally friendly technology to enhance rice field and grain quality is a challenge for the scientific community. Here, we showed that the application of molecular hydrogen in the form of hydrogen nanobubble water could increase the length, width, and thickness of brown/rough rice and white rice, as well as 1000-grain weight, compared to the irrigation with ditch water. The above results were well matched with the transcriptional profiles of representative genes related to high yield, including up-regulation of heterotrimeric G protein β-subunit gene (RGB1) for cellular proliferation, Grain size 5 (GS5) for grain width, Small grain 1 (SMG1) for grain length and width, Grain weight 8 (GW8) for grain width and weight, and down-regulation of negatively correlated gene Grain size 3 (GS3) for grain length. Meanwhile, although total starch content in white rice is not altered by HNW, the content of amylose was decreased by 31.6%, which was parallel to the changes in the transcripts of the amylose metabolism genes. In particular, cadmium accumulation in white rice was significantly reduced, reaching 52% of the control group. This phenomenon was correlated well with the differential expression of transporter genes responsible for Cd entering plants, including down-regulated Natural resistance-associated macrophage protein (Nramp5), Heavy metal transporting ATPase (HMA2 and HMA3), and Iron-regulated transporters (IRT1), and for decreasing Cd accumulation in grain, including down-regulated Low cadmium (LCD). This study clearly showed that the application of molecular hydrogen might be used as an effective approach to increase field and grain quality of rice.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.