The high-quality development of enterprises is the micro-foundation of China’s economic growth model from “speed and scale” to “quality and efficiency,” in which China’s transportation infrastructure, especially the high-speed railways (HSRs), plays an indispensable role. We select the propensity score matching and difference in difference (PSM-DID) model as the identification strategy and empirically analyze the impact of the HSR on the high-quality development of enterprises based on empirical data of 1331 A-share listed companies in China. The results show that the HSR has a significant positive impact on the high-quality development of enterprises. This effect is more substantial for enterprises in the Pearl River Delta, the Triangle of Central China, and small and medium-sized cities. The HSR inhibited the high-quality development of enterprises in the mining, culture, sports, and entertainment industries in eastern and central China. The reason is the restriction of the ability to create social and environmental value and the influence of monopolistic competition. The HSR improves labor mobility, capital expansion, and knowledge spillovers, thereby promoting the high-quality development of enterprises. However, new infrastructure mainly improves the high-quality development of enterprises by promoting knowledge spillovers and technological innovation. This paper contributes to the modernization of China’s HSR network and provides essential insights for the HSR to achieve sustainable development goals.

Whether it is possible to create suitable plants for cadmium phytoremediation by introducing Datura stramonium L. genes into tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) remains unclear. Hydroponic experiments were performed on N. tabacum L. var. MTLY, a newly developed hybrid variety, and the parents. Seedlings at the six-leaf stage were treated with 0 (control), 10 µM, 180 µM and 360 µM CdCl₂ for 7 days, and their differences in Cd tolerance and accumulation and physiological and metabolic responses were evaluated. When subjected to 360 µM Cd, the growth of “MTLY”, in terms of the dry weight, plant height and root length, was obviously better than N. tabacum L. var. LY2 (female parent). In contrast to D. stramonium (male parent) and “LY2”, “MTLY” accumulated more Cd in shoots (127.6–3837.1 mg kg⁻¹) and roots (121.6–1167.7 mg kg⁻¹). Moreover, unlike “LY2”, “MTLY” could accumulate more Cd in its shoots than roots. Its bioconcentration factor (BCF) and translocation factor (TF) values reached 95.9–149.7 and 1.0–3.5, respectively, which were far greater than those of “LY2”. High-dose Cd stress significantly increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels and decreased chlorophyll contents in tobacco seedlings, especially in “LY2”. Various enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants in the three materials showed different responses to Cd stress. The change of the phenolic compounds and alkaloids in “MTLY” was basically similar to that in D. stramonium, but their levels were apparently higher than those in “LY2”. Results indicated that distant hybridization could be one of the effective methods for introducing metal-hyperaccumulator genes into a high biomass species, which contributed to enhancing the Cd tolerance, accumulation and detoxification in tobacco. This study has great significance in obtaining elite germplasm for phytoremediation. The exact mechanisms in molecules and genetics and the practical effectiveness in cadmium-contaminated soil remain to be further elucidated.