Abstract
Background and aims
High and stable plant productivity is a major aim in agricultural research. Silicon fertilization improves yields of various crops under stress. Nonetheless, broad application of silicon is inhibited by the lack of a mechanism explaining this effect.
Experimental System
To study the role of silicon in soil-grown plants under drought, we utilized a sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) mutant plant lacking the key silicon root channel – Low silicon 1 (SbLsi1). The sblsi1 mutant plants absorb 1/15 of the silicon absorbed by wild type plants, making them a suitable tool to examine silicon physiology in soil and under field conditions.
Results
In mutant plants grown in pots, significant reductions in momentary and accumulated whole plant transpiration, photosynthesis rate, and stomatal conductance were found only under water stress. Root structure, root hydraulic conductance, and stomatal density were similar between wild type and sblsi1 plants. Similar leaf water contents between the genotypes suggested that the water uptake was balanced with transpiration.
Conclusions
The similarity between the genotypes under benign conditions are in accordance with minor to no effects of silicon fertilization in non-stressed plants, and support the minor pleiotropic effects of the mutation. Early stomatal closure in the mutant plants under drought stress caused the reduced transpiration. Thise early response suggests that silicon may delay the onset of drought physiology by either reduced stress signaling or reaction.
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Data availability
All raw data included in the article is available on request.
Code availability
Not relevant.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Menachem Moshelion for supporting and supervising the lysimetric experimental and analytical work, and Moshe Shenker and Tomer Malchi for the help and support in measuring root water flow rates. This work was supported by the ICORE ISF grant 757/12, the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) and the Research Program 16/01/1900 Maïmonide-Israel, Israeli-French High Council for Scientific &Technological Research.
Funding
ICORE ISF grant 757/12, Maïmonide-Israel, Israeli-French High Council for Scientific &Technological Research Program 16/01/1900.
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OM conceived and conducted the experiments and analyzed the data, NZ measured root hydraulic conductance and analyzed the data, BN supported the second lysimetric experiment and its analysis, YZ supported the data analysis, SB supported the experimental work, ABG supervised the first lysimetric experiment and its analysis, RE conceived the scientific question and supervised the experimental and analytical work. All authors commented on the data interpretation, and reviewed and approved the manuscript.
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Markovich, O., Zexer, N., Negin, B. et al. Low Si combined with drought causes reduced transpiration in sorghum Lsi1 mutant. Plant Soil 477, 57–67 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05298-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05298-4