Cadmium (Cd) is considered to be one of the most toxic metals, causing serious harm to plants’ growth and humans’ health. Therefore, it is necessary to study simple, practical, and environmentally friendly methods to reduce its toxicity. Until now, people have applied zinc sulfate to improve the Cd tolerance of plants. However, related studies have mainly focused on physiological and biochemical aspects, with a lack of in-depth molecular mechanism research. In this study, we sprayed high (40 mM) and low (2.5 mM) concentrations of zinc sulfate on seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum Swartz) plants under 0.5 mM Cd stress. Transcriptome sequencing and physiological indicators were used to reveal the mechanism of Cd tolerance. Compared with the control treatment, we found that zinc sulfate decreased the content of Cd²⁺ by 57.03–73.39%, and that the transfer coefficient of Cd decreased by 58.91–75.25% in different parts of plants. In addition, our results indicate that the antioxidant capacity of plants was improved, with marked increases in the glutathione content and the activity levels of glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione S-transferase (GST), and other enzymes. Transcriptome sequencing showed that the differentially expressed genes in both the 0.5 Zn and 40 Zn treatments were mainly genes encoding GST. This study suggests that genes encoding GST in the glutathione pathway may play an important role in regulating the Cd tolerance of seashore paspalum. Furthermore, the present study provides a theoretical reference for the regulation mechanism caused by zinc sulfate spraying to improve plants’ Cd tolerance.

With the intensification of global climate change, the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events seriously affected agroecosystems and human health. Zoysia japonica Steud. (Z. japonica) is a warm season turfgrass with outstanding drought tolerance; therefore, gaining insight into the breeding and ecological restoration of drought-tolerant lawn grass species is of great significance. This study aimed to investigate the adaptive strategies of drought-resistant z047 and z388 by integrating transcriptome analysis and experimental physiological measurements in a drought field. Physiological experiments have demonstrated that z047 plants exhibited a stronger water retention capacity, lower cell membrane damage, and higher above-ground biomass. In addition, the relative water content and permanent wilting coefficient of z047 plants were superior to wild type plants. Our results verified that there were 108 and 208 significantly differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (fold change (FC) ≥ 4, p < 0.01) screened from z047 plants under drought stress for 7 and 14 days, respectively. Moreover, remarkable upregulation of MAPKKK17 and MAPKKK16 genes involved in the MAPK signalling pathway may be closely related to their drought tolerance. Collectively, this study reveals the molecular and physiological synergistic mechanism of drought tolerance in Z. japonica, thus providing a theoretical basis for molecular breeding of drought-tolerant plant cultivars and ecological restoration in arid areas.