Can Plants and Fungi Cure «The Wounds» Using Silicone Gel?

Abstract

This paper is devoted for idea that plants and mushrooms can cover defects or wounds using large silicon formations (phytolithes). Its observed huge phytolithes more than 500 mkm. The issue is not closed and needs to be comprehensively studied.

Phytolith Formation in Plants: From Soil to Cell

“…Some studies show images where the phytoliths are seen, like broken structures, which suggests that the original size of some of these phytoliths may be even larger. These anomalies were observed by our research group, as we found Si structures of up to 500 μm [10] (Figure 4). Interestingly, on the surface of those large structures, imprints of internal plant structures were also recorded, while it remains unknown how these imprints were printed onto the large phytoliths.…”

“…Currie and Perry [19], in their earlier studies, discussed that the thickness of the deposited silica actually depends upon the location within the plant [48,50,51,52], and concluded that biogenic silica particles show a narrow particle size distribution for specific structural motifs. However, regarding size, a different opinion also exists [10], which is elaborated in detail in Section 4. Plant silicification occurs in cell lumens, intercellular spaces, and cell-walls under the control of different silicification mechanisms, which is discussed below, respectively.…”

“…The secret behind this marvellous process of sculpturing silica at nanoscale must be the genes and proteins that are involved in the transport and deposition of Si. So far it is known that silicon transporters, silaffins, silicateins, silacidins, and silicases play essential roles in the process of biosilfication in different living organisms i.e., diatoms, sponges, and plants [10,55,88,89]. However, specifically in plants, most of the phytolith research is dedicated to the discovery of silicon transporters and Nod26-like major intrinsic proteins (NIPs).…”

“…This might be due to the fact that cellulose microfibrils and other carbohydrates are structures with fixed geometry and order, which may imprint this order on crystal matrix, giving rise to birefringence (Figure 4d) [4,116]. However, the absence of reports on the large-sized phytoliths might be explained by the fact that these large-sized phytoliths can fall out of sight of scientists or by a constant methodological error during phytoliths isolation that originates due to a repeated re-suspension [10]. Recent studies on changes in phytolith size and content have delineated the effect of certain factors, such as growing conditions, age of tissues, and biotic and abiotic stresses.…”

“…Silicon is the second most abundant element on earth, comes to the researcher’s mind with the thinking of the age of research ‘ in silico ’ and the global rise of silicon valleys. Until now, we should have been able to understand the functions of biosilicification in plants, but it still remains an enigma when we think about the pathways and processes that are involved in phytolith formation and phytoliths’ role in plants [9,10]. The phytolith research is often ignored by mainstream literature regarding the plant functional diversity [2], which might be due to the fact that Si is not an essential element for plant metabolism [9,11].…”