Breeding for silicon-use efficiency, protein content and drought tolerance in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.): a review

Figures & data

Figure 1. The uptake and distribution of Si from soil through to the deposition in silicified cell walls and silica bodies in wheat. LSi 1, LSi 2 and LSi 6 denote genes that condition Si influx and efflux transporters, Si (OH)₄ = orthosilicic acid. Source: Adapted from Farooq and Dietz, (2015).

Table 1. The effect of different Si formulations and concentrations on nutrient uptake, agronomic traits, and abiotic stresses of various crops.

Crop species	Si concentration and formulation	Reported Si effects	Reference
Avena sativa L.	0.8% soluble Silamol	Increased root and seedling length	Toledo et al. (2012)
Triticum aestivum L.		Enhanced 1000 seed weight
Oryza sativa L.	0, 100, 200 and 300 ppm Calcium silicate	Improved grain and straw weight. Improved P, K, S, Na and Si uptake	Malav et al. (2015)
Glycine max L.	0.0, 0.5 and 1.0 mM Na2SiO3.5H2O	Enhanced Zn accumulation and remobilisation	Pascual et al. (2016)
Gossypium hirsutum L.	1.0 mM Na2SiO3	Decreased effects of Ni toxicity	Khaliq et al. (2016)
Triticum aestivum L.	0,1, 10, 50 g SiO2	Improved P and N uptake and aboveground biomass	Neu et al. (2017)
Solanum tuberosum L. var. Agria	1000 and 2000 ppm nanosilica, sodium silicate, nanoclay, and Bentonite	Improved leaf, root characteristics and mini tuber quality	Soltani et al. (2018)
Arachis hypogaea L.	150 mM sodium metasilicate Na2SiO3.9H2O	Improved uptake and distribution of N, P, K, Ca and Mg	Dong et al. (2018)
Zea mays L. cv Reduta	Soils treated with 0, 80 and 1000 kgSi.ha^−1 KSiO3 and nutrient medium 100, 500, 1000, 5000 μM Si KSiO3	Increased Ca, P, S, Mn, Zn, Cu, Mo, Cl and Fe in soils and S, Mg, Ca, B, Fe, Mn in solutions. Translocation of Mg, Ca, S, Mn and Mo increased to shoots.	Greger and Landberg (2018)
Lactuca sativa L. cv. Amerikanischer brauner
Triticum aestivum L. cv Tjalve
Daucus carota L. cv. Nantaise
Pisum sativum L. cv. Fenom
Triticum durum Desf.	150 mg Si L^−1sodium silicate (Na2SiO3.H2O)	Enhanced drought tolerance by improving chlorophyll content, root and shoot length and relative water capacity	Othmani et al. (2020)

Table 2. List of reported aquaporins and transporter genes which facilitate Si uptake and distribution in various crops.

Crop species	Crop gene name	Aquaporin/transporter gene type	Reference
Solanum lycopersicum L.	SlPIP1;3,	Aquaporin	Shi et al. (2016)
	SlPIP1;5 and SlPIP2;6
Triticum aestivum L.	TaPIP1	Aquaporin	Younis et al. (2020)
	TaNIP2
Arabidopsis thaliana L.	TaNIP	Aquaporin	Monpetit et al. (2012)
Zea mays L.	ZmLsi1	Lsi1	Bokor et al. (2017)
Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter	EtLsi1-1	Lsi1	Ligaba-Osena et al. (2020)
	EtLsi1-2
Oryza sativa L.	Lsi1	Lsi1	Ma et al. (2006)
Hordeum vulgare L.	HvLsi1	Lsi1	Yamaji et al. (2012)
Arabidopsis thaliana L.	TaLsi1	Lsi1	Monpetit et al. (2012)
Fragaria x ananassa Duchesne	Lsi1	Lsi1	Ouellette et al. (2017)
Oryza sativa L.	OsLsi1	Lsi1	Lin et al. (2019)
Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. ex Klotzsch	EpLsi1	Lsi1	Hu et al. (2020)
Oryza sativa L. subsp. indica	Lsi1	Lsi1	Swain and Rout (2020)
Triticum aestivum L.	Lsi1	Lsi1	Jain et al. (2021)
Zea mays L.	ZmLsi2	Lsi2	Bokor et al. (2017)
Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter	EtLsi2-1	Lsi2	Ligaba-Osena et al. (2020)
	EtLsi2-2
	EtLsi2-3
	EtLsi2-4
Hordeum vulgare L.	HvLsi2	Lsi2	Yamaji et al. (2012)
Fragaria x ananassa Duchesne	Lsi2	Lsi2	Ouellette et al. (2017)
Festuca arundinacea Schreb.	Lsi1	Lsi2	McLarnon et al. (2017)
Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. ex Klotzsch	EpLsi2	Lsi2	Hu et al. (2020)
Oryza sativa L. subsp. indica	Lsi2	Lsi2	Swain and Rout (2020)
Hordeum vulgare L.	HvLsi3	Lsi3	Yamaji et al. (2012)
Zea mays L.	ZmLsi6	Lsi6	Bokor et al. (2017)
Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter	EtLsi6-1	Lsi6	Ligaba-Osena et al. (2020)

Lsi = silicon transporter genes; NIP = nodulin-26-like intrinsic proteins; PIP = plasma membrane intrinsic proteins; SIPs = small basic intrinsic proteins; TIP = tonoplast intrinsic proteins. The two-letter prefix in the gene name denotes the crop species.

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