Abstract: To approach whether nitric oxide (NO) in microwave pretreatment can improve wheat seedling’s cadmium tolerance, wheat seeds were pretreated with microwave radiation (126 mW·cm^-2)  for 10 s, and the seedlings were treated with 150 μmol·L^-1 of CdCl₂ and 0.5% (w/v) of cPTIO (a NO scavenger), aimed to study the effects of NO on the lipid peroxidation, antioxidant enzyme activities, photosynthesis pigment concentrations, and growth of microwavepretreated wheat seedlings under cadmium stress. The 10 s microwave pretreatment could significantly decrease the malondialdehyde content, while increase the superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase activities, the concentrations of nitric oxide, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and carotenoid, and the plant height, root length, and shoot and root dry weight of the seedlings under cadmium stress. The amelioration effect of the microwave pretreatment on the cadmium stress was effectively reversed by the addition of cPTIO, suggesting that NO was involved in the microwave pretreatment-induced cadmium tolerance of wheat seedlings, and microwave pretreatment did trigger NO production which could lead to the cadmium tolerance of wheat seedlings.