Silicon enhances resistance to antimony toxicity in the low-silica rice mutant,lsi1

Abstract

A solution culture experiment was designed to determine whether Si can alleviate Sb toxicity in rice. The design involved a rice mutant with low Si accumulation and wild-type rice with normal Si accumulation. The effects of Si on rice Sb stress in the presence or absence of P were investigated. P significantly increased the shoot biomass in both wild-type and mutant rice, whereas Si increased the biomass only in the wild-type rice. No biomass change was detected in both rice type when 10 or 30 μmol·L −1 Sb was added to the solution. Compared with the no P control, in both rice types, the application of 0.7 mmol·L −1 P significantly increased the P content, whereas Si significantly influenced the uptake and accumulation of P and Sb. In different P and Sb treatments, 1.0 mmol·L −1 Si led to 6.9-58.2% and 21.4-62.5% decreased Sb content in the shoots of wild-type and mutant rice, respectively. Si addition also significantly impacted the distribution coefficient of Sb between the shoots and seeds of both rice types. These results suggest that the application of Si in rice can promote growth, reduce Sb accumulation and decrease Sb movement to shoot and seeds, which may lead to Sb pollution control under rice field conditions.

Silicon alleviates cadmium toxicity by enhanced photosynthetic rate and modified bundle sheath's cell chloroplasts ultrastructure in maize

“…Pragabar et al, 2011). Similarly, the mitigation role of Si has been recently described for several other metals or dangerous toxic elements, including chromium , lead (Li et al, 2012), antimony (Huang et al, 2012;Vaculíková et al, 2014) or arsenic (Fleck et al, 2013;Tripathi et al, 2013).…”

Silicon, the silver bullet for mitigating biotic and abiotic stress, and improving grain quality, in rice?

“…Selenite is the dominant form of selenium in soil solution, transported into roots, with lsi1 knockout mutants having significantly reduced selenite accumulation (Zhao et al, 2010). Antimonite is also a silicic acid analogue and, consequently, also assimilated through silicic acid uptake pathways in rice (Huang et al, 2012, Tripathi et al 2013. Fleck et al (2011) studied the role of silicon in root formation and function and found that silicon nutrition increased suberization of the exodermis and lignification of the sclerenchyma, as well as reduced the zone of radial oxygen loss by roots.…”

“…Rice is also a source of the environmental pollutant antimonite, a carcinogen, and toxicant causing diseases of the liver, skin, respiratory, cardiovascular systems (Wu et al, 2011, Ren et al, 2014. Antimonite is, like arsenite, also a silicic acid analogue and presence of silicic acid in solution culture was also shown to reduce uptake of antimonite in rice (Huang et al, 2012, Tripathi et al 2013.…”

Metalloids in plants: A systematic discussion beyond description

“…Many of the studies showed that the addition of Si and Se externally can reduce the uptake of Sb and ameliorate the Sb-toxicity in the crop plants (Feng et al, 2013). It has been observed that Si addition reduces Sb uptake in wild-type as well as mutant rice (Feng et al, 2013;Huang, Zhang, & Zhao, 2012).…”