Rice direct seeding technology has been considered as a promising alternative to traditional transplanting because of its advantages in saving labor and water. However, the poor emergence and seedling growth caused by chill stress are the main bottlenecks in wide-scale adoption of direct-seeded rice in Heilongjiang Province, China. Here, we found that natural plant growth regulator guvermectin (GV) effectively improved rice seed germination and seedling growth under chilling stress. Results from 2 year field trials showed that seed-soaking with GV not only enhanced the emergence rate and seedling growth but also increased the panicle number per plant and grain number per panicle, resulting in 9.0 and 6.8% increase in the yield of direct-seeded rice, respectively. Integrative physiological, transcriptomic, and metabolomic assays revealed that GV promoted seed germination under chilling stress mainly by enhancing the activities of alpha-amylase and antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and catalase), increasing the contents of soluble sugar and soluble protein, improving the biosynthesis of glutathione and flavonoids, as well as activating gibberellin-responsive transcription factors and inhibiting the abscisic acid signaling pathway. These findings indicate that seed-soaking with GV has good potential to improve seedling establishment and yield of direct-seeded rice even under chilling stress.
