Reviews

The study of plant silicon has arisen from findings in multiple fields, including palaeontology, archaeology, agronomy and ecology, and drawn from knowledge and perspectives in biochemistry, mycology, molecular biology, genetics and more. To synthesise disparate pieces of information for various purposes, many people have written reviews about plant silicon.

In June 2022 a search of BIOSIS Previews for: (silicon OR silica) AND (plant OR leaf OR crop) AND (review OR meta-analysis) occurring in the title or abstract, returned 883 items, of which 674 could be eliminated as not relevant by their titles. The remaining list was 209 reviews (with an explosion of publications in the last 10 years), and here is a word cloud of the most frequent words in the titles:

With so many reviews to chose from, below are a selection of about 25 that we think provide a good overview of historical and current developments in plant silicon research. The list is not exhaustive, and there are, of course, many fantastic primary research papers to be read too. Click on the arrows beside each topic header.

Classics (2002 and earlier)
Plant Si biochemistry (including uptake, transport and deposition)
  • Coskun, D., Deshmukh, R., Sonah, H., Menzies, J. G., Reynolds, O., Ma, J. F., Kronzucker, H. J., & Bélanger, R. R. 2019. The controversies of silicon’s role in plant biology. New Phytologist, 221(1): 67–85. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15343
  • Currie, H.A. and Perry, C.C., 2007. Silica in plants: biological, biochemical and chemical studies. Annals of botany, 100(7): 1383-1389. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcm247
  • Hodson, M.J., White, P.J., Mead, A. and Broadley, M.R., 2005. Phylogenetic variation in the silicon composition of plants. Annals of botany, 96(6): 1027-1046. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mci255
  • Kumar, S., Soukup, M., and Elbaum, R., 2017. Silicification in Grasses: Variation between Different Cell Types. Front. Plant Sci. 8, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.00438
  • Lux, A., Lukačová, Z., Vaculík, M., Švubová, R., Kohanová, J., Soukup, M., Martinka, M. and Bokor, B., 2020. Silicification of root tissues. Plants, 9(1):111. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9010111
  • Ma, J. F., & Yamaji, N. 2015. A cooperative system of silicon transport in plants. Trends in Plant Science, 20(7): 435–442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2015.04.007
  • Mandlik, R., Thakral, V., Raturi, G., Shinde, S., Nikolić, M., Tripathi, D. K., Sonah, H., & Deshmukh, R. 2020. Significance of silicon uptake, transport, and deposition in plants. Journal of Experimental Botany, 71(21): 6703–6718. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraa301
  • Zexer, N., Kumar, S. and Elbaum, R. (2023). Silica deposition in plants: scaffolding the mineralization. Annals of Botany, 131 (6), pp.897–908. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcad056
Plant Si ecology and evolution
Silicon in agriculture
  • Guntzer, F., Keller, C. and Meunier, J.D., 2012. Benefits of plant silicon for crops: a review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 32(1): 201-213. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-011-0039-8
  • Pang, Z., Peng, H., Lin, S., and Liang, Y., 2023. Theory and application of a Si-based defense barrier for plants: Implications for soil-plant-atmosphere system health. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1080/10643389.2023.2267939
  • Thorne, S.J., Hartley, S.E. and Maathuis, F.J., 2020. Is silicon a panacea for alleviating drought and salt stress in crops?. Frontiers in plant science, 11:1221. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.01221
Herbivory and biotic stress alleviation
  • Reynolds, O.L., Keeping, M.G. and Meyer, J.H., 2009. Silicon‐augmented resistance of plants to herbivorous insects: a review. Annals of applied biology, 155(2), pp.171-186. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7348.2009.00348.x
  • Singh, A., Kumar, A., Hartley, S., & Singh, I. K. 2020. Silicon: Its ameliorative effect on plant defense against herbivory. Journal of Experimental Botany, 71(21): 6730–6743. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraa300
  • Van Bockhaven, J., De Vleesschauwer, D. and Höfte, M., 2013. Towards establishing broad-spectrum disease resistance in plants: silicon leads the way. Journal of experimental botany, 64(5):1281-1293. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/ers329
Abiotic stress alleviation
  • Cooke, J., & Leishman, M. R. 2016. Consistent alleviation of abiotic stress with silicon addition: a meta-analysis. Functional Ecology, 30(8): 1340–1357. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.12713
  • Liang, Y., Sun, W., Zhu, Y.G. and Christie, P., 2007. Mechanisms of silicon-mediated alleviation of abiotic stresses in higher plants: a review. Environmental pollution, 147(2): 422-428. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2006.06.008
Silicon cycling
  • Carey, J.C. and Fulweiler, R.W., 2012. The terrestrial silica pump. PLoS One, 7(12), p.e52932. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052932
  • Cornelis, J.T., Delvaux, B., Georg, R.B., Lucas, Y., Ranger, J. and Opfergelt, S., 2011. Tracing the origin of dissolved silicon transferred from various soil-plant systems towards rivers: a review. Biogeosciences, 8(1): 89-112. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-8-89-2011
  • Katz, O., Puppe, D., Kaczorek, D., Prakash, N. B. and Schaller, J., 2021. Silicon in the soil–plant continuum: Intricate feedback mechanisms within ecosystems. Plants, 10(4): 652; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10040652
  • Schaller, J., Puppe, D., Kaczorek, D., Ellerbrock, R. and Sommer, M., 2021. Silicon cycling in soils revisited. Plants, 10(2): 295. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10020295
  • Sommer, M., Kaczorek, D., Kuzyakov, Y. and Breuer, J., 2006. Silicon pools and fluxes in soils and landscapes—a review. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, 169(3): 310-329. https://doi.org/10.1002/jpln.200521981
  • Sutton, J.N., André, L., Cardinal, D., Conley, D.J., De Souza, G.F., Dean, J., Dodd, J., Ehlert, C., Ellwood, M.J., Frings, P.J. and Grasse, P., 2018. A review of the stable isotope bio-geochemistry of the global silicon cycle and its associated trace elements. Frontiers in Earth Science, p.112. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2017.00112
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