Alleviation of abiotic and biotic stresses in plants by silicon supplementation

Abstract

Silicon has been considered as beneficial element for the plants. The supplementation of silicon as nutrient to the plants may play a significant role which includes increase in crop growth and yield, improvement of leaf exposure to light, decreased susceptibility to pathogens and pests and amelioration to abiotic and biotic stresses. The most significant effect of silicon on plants, besides improving their fitness in adverse environmental conditions and increasing agricultural productivity of plants is the restriction of pest attack and prevention of diseases. Unfortunately the significance of silicon nutrition in crop production and mitigation of abiotic and biotic stresses remains unexplored. Hence there is an urgent need to use silicon fertilizers for improvement in crop production. The understanding of the beneficial effects of silicon is important to improve crop productivity as it may enhance plant nutritional value for a growing world population.

Stress Oxidative Evaluation on SiK®-Supplemented Castanea sativa Mill. Plants Growing Under High Temperature

“…In the present work, Si application significantly increased APX, CAT, and POD activity at B-32°C ( Fig. 6), with 10 mM SiK® treatment showing an increase of 29%, 18%, and 36% respectively, of antioxidant enzymes involved in the defence response to heat stress, according to Malhotra et al (2016). These findings suggest that the Si-treated plants were more resistant to heat stress compared to untreated plants.…”

“…The beneficial effect of Si fertilization on the activity of antioxidant enzymes in plants under heat stress has been previously reported (Malhotra et al 2016;Kim et al 2017). APX and CAT are enzymes involved in the elimination of ROS, while POD acts on the oxidation of phenols to quinones, which is important regarding tolerance against environmental stresses, as well as the metabolism of phenolic compounds (Wang et al 2010;Taranto et al 2017).…”

Silicon-Solubilizing Media and Its Implication for Characterization of Bacteria to Mitigate Biotic Stress

“…Number, length, and diameter of RS infection spots were significantly found to be reduced in SN + RS + Fe on addition of feldspar and SN. This also correlates to enhanced resistance imparted by induced antioxidative enzyme responses (Malhotra et al, 2016).…”

“…It's accessibility to the plant roots is generally governed by chemical and biological reactions of soil. Plants assimilate Si as soluble monosilicic acid resulting in strengthening of cell wall through various mechanisms (Pilon-Smits et al, 2009;Malhotra et al, 2016). Strengthened cell wall due to higher accumulation of silicon is known to improve plant resistance to diseases, insect attack, and adverse climatic conditions in various plant species like rice, oat, barley, wheat, cucumber,and sugarcane (Liang et al, 2003;Fauteux et al, 2005;Cai et al, 2008;Yavaş and Aydın, 2017).…”

Silicon and Salinity: Crosstalk in Crop-Mediated Stress Tolerance Mechanisms

“…The use of different approaches to alleviate the negative effects of salinity is likely to ensure the sustainable production of food, but salinity stress management is very challenging due to its multigenic and quantitative nature (Ahmad and Rasool, 2014). Strategies have been reported for the amelioration of the negative effects of salinity on plants, such as developing salt-tolerant crops, transgenic varieties, plant growth-promoting bacteria, endophytes, the leaching of salt from the root zone, and micro-jet irrigation to optimize the use of water (Chanchal Malhotra et al, 2016; Ibrahim et al, 2016). However, very little knowledge still exist about the mineral status and dynamics of plants and their salinity tolerance (Manchanda and Garg, 2008).…”