Exploration of silicon functions to integrate with biotic stress tolerance and crop improvement

Abstract

In the era of climate change, due to increased incidences of a wide range of various environmental stresses, especially biotic and abiotic stresses around the globe, the performance of plants can be affected by these stresses. After oxygen, silicon (Si) is the second most abundant element in the earth’s crust. It is not considered as an important element, but can be thought of as a multi-beneficial quasi-essential element for plants. This review on silicon presents an overview of the versatile role of this element in a variety of plants. Plants absorb silicon through roots from the rhizospheric soil in the form of silicic or monosilicic acid. Silicon plays a key metabolic function in living organisms due to its relative abundance in the atmosphere. Plants with higher content of silicon in shoot or root are very few prone to attack by pests, and exhibit increased stress resistance. However, the more remarkable impact of silicon is the decrease in the number of seed intensities/soil-borne and foliar diseases of major plant varieties that are infected by biotrophic, hemi-biotrophic and necrotrophic pathogens. The amelioration in disease symptoms are due to the effect of silicon on a some factors involved in providing host resistance namely, duration of incubation, size, shape and number of lesions. The formation of a mechanical barrier beneath the cuticle and in the cell walls by the polymerization of silicon was first proposed as to how this element decreases plant disease severity. The current understanding of how this element enhances resistance in plants subjected to biotic stress, the exact functions and mechanisms by which it modulates plant biology by potentiating the host defence mechanism needs to be studied using genomics, metabolomics and proteomics. The role of silicon in helping the plants in adaption to biotic stress has been discussed which will help to plan in a systematic way the development of more sustainable agriculture for food security and safety in the future.

Influence of Silicon on Biocontrol Strategies to Manage Biotic Stress for Crop Protection, Performance, and Improvement

“…Silicon is the universe's seventh most plentiful element and the planet's second most prevalent element. Next to oxygen, Si is the second most abundant compound in the Earth's crust (~28% weight basis) [2,5,28]. Silicon reacts with oxygen to generate silicates, such as quartz and feldspar.…”

“…Silicon alters the structure of trichomes and promotes lignin buildup and the synthesis of phenolics, chitinases, and peroxidases activities, among other defense mechanisms [59]. Many of these characteristics are also linked with plant resistance to sucking insects, which alters their probing behavior [12,28,60].…”

“…The use of Si has been accepted as a potential alternative over traditional methods due to its crucial role to empower stress tolerance to enhance crop productivity along with agribusiness management [7,15,16,18,26,27]. The various adaptive strategies offered Si-enhanced fungal disease resistance [15,16,18,28] and were found to be linked with significantly higher Si deposits in leaves as a potent physical barrier against the penetration ability of pathogens.…”

The Current State of Knowledge about Essential Oil Fumigation for Quality of Crops during Postharvest

“…In particular, SOD is a primary warrior in the battle with reactive oxygen species; it catalyzes dismutases of two superoxide anion radicals to hydrogen peroxide and O 2 [37], and due to this fact, it is called a perfect antioxidant. Peroxidase and catalase are activated due to physiological stress from, for example, microbial or pest attacks [38].…”

Influence of Potassium Silicate on the Survival, Development and Reproduction of Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

“…In this respect, there is a pressing need to develop effective and eco-friendly alternative pest control methods. Induced resistance in plants to herbivores may be one of these viable approaches in integrated pest management, where inductors can play a vital role in plant resistance to a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses (Debona et al, 2017;Song et al, 2021). Most inductors are relatively low in toxicity compared to the synthetic insecticides and consequently limit of frequent uses of insecticides spray, reduce environmental hazardous, delay resistance development, improve crop yield besides prospective compatibility with biological control by natural enemies (Boughton et al, 2006).…”