Silicon in Pre-sprouted Sugarcane Seedlings Mitigates the Effects of Water Deficit After Transplanting

Abstract

This study is aimed at assessing whether silicon (Si) can mitigate the effects caused by water stress in pre-sprouted seedlings (PSS) in sugarcane after their transplanting in the soil and what is the best form in the application if via nutrient solution or leaf spraying. The treatments were arranged in a 3 × 3 factorial scheme with silicon supply via nutrient solution (2 mmol L −1), Si via leaf application (3.4 mmol L −1), and without Si (control) and three levels of soil water retention capacity (70%, 50%, and 30%), for 30 days. In the absence of Si, the water deficit was damaging to the physiological, growth, and dry matter production variables of plants, in a 30% level of soil water retention capacity. Silicon supply via nutrient solution was more efficient when compared with Si via leaf spraying in the formation of pre-sprouted sugarcane seedlings in the first 30 days after transplanting, since it increased the quantum efficiency of photosystem II, chlorophyll content, leaf water potential, and water content, decreased cell electrolyte leakage and free proline content, and allowed a higher growth and biomass production. In conclusion, the supply of Si via nutrient solution in pre-sprouted sugarcane seedlings can be considered a feasible alternative to alleviate water deficit damage imposed after transplanting, in a 30% level of soil water retention capacity.

Silicon Increases Leaf Chlorophyll Content and Iron Nutritional Efficiency and Reduces Iron Deficiency in Sorghum Plants

“…4). The hypothesis that can explain this effect is that Si increases the concentration of Fe in leaves, besides the well-known role of Fe in chlorophyll synthesis (Prado 2008). Moreover, the application of Si decreased the MDA content in leaves and in roots and, consequently, the degradation of chlorophyll.…”

“…In fact, it has been shown that Si could increases The error bar in the figure represents the standard error. Different lowercase letters represent the differences in the means between Fe condition within the same Si treatments and uppercase letters mark the differences among the Si treatments within the same Fe condition, both were calculated using Tukey's test (significant at p ≤ 0.05) antioxidant activity by mitigating the effect of abiotic stress, such as water deficit in sugarcane plants (Teixeira et al 2020) and Fe deficiency in cucumber plants (Bityutskii et al 2014;Pavlovic et al 2013;Gonzalo et al 2013). Furthermore, Si increased chlorophyll content and biomass accumulation by improving the activity of antioxidant enzymes which resulted in a lower accumulation of ROS in young leaves of barley plants (Nikolic et al 2019).…”

“…A strategy adopted to reduce abiotic stress is the use of silicon (Si), which is a beneficial element to plants by acting in several defense mechanisms and reducing various stress (Vasanthi et al 2014). For instance, the application of Si could preserve the photosynthetic pigments of sugarcane plants grown under water deficit (Teixeira et al 2020). In addition, Si treatment increased the relative chlorophyll index and the biomass accumulation of maize and sorghum plants exposed to manganese (Mn) deficiency (Oliveira et al 2020).…”

An Overview on the Potential of Silicon in Promoting Defence Against Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Sugarcane

“…Furthermore, Si fertilisation increased proline concentrations and/or ant-oxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidise (APX), in both the cultivars under water stress conditions. Recently, Teixeira et al (2020) suggested that application of Si by means of nutrient solution was more efficient compared to leaf spraying in pre-sprouted sugarcane seedlings to mitigate water stress damage imposed after transplanting in a 30% level of soil water retention capacity. However, water-holding capacity of soil is a vital factor which controls the intensity of drought stress in plants.…”

“…Due to improved growth and yield of sugarcane in response to Si fertilisation (Guntzer et al 2012a;Liang et al 2015;Meena et al 2014;Prakash et al 2018;Savant et al 1999), Si fertilisers are regularly applied to sugarcane in Australia, South Africa and northern and southern America (Kingston 2008;Liang et al 2015;Savant et al 1999;Tubana et al 2016). Improved yield in sugarcane is attributed to increased photosynthetic activity (Cheng 1982;Elawad et al 1982), increased tolerance to salinity (Ashraf et al 2010a, b) and water stress (Camargo et al 2019;Oliveira et al 2010, Teixeira et al 2020, mitigating nutrient toxicity (Clements 1965b;Elawad et al 1982;Fox et al 1967) and enhanced defence mechanisms to a wide range of biotic stresses resulting in increased plant resistance and/or tolerance to such stresses (Haynes 2017;Savant et al 1999).…”