Selenium, Silicon and their Nanoparticles-mediated Environmental Stress Tolerance in Crop Plants

Submission Deadline: 30 July 2023 (closed)

Guest Editors

Summary

Climate change provokes a plethora of environmental stresses limiting crop yield and quality of produce worldwide. In order to achieve sustainable development in agriculture it is necessary to use ecologically compatible and environmentally friendly strategies to decrease the adverse effects of stresses on plant growth and development. Silicon (Si) and selenium (Se) are widely studied trace elements and their roles in plant growth and physiology are well documented. Recently, these trace elements have been found to be protective both under abiotic and biotic stress conditions. Silicon is the second most abundant element after oxygen in soils so by nature plants have a great scope to uptake Si in their tissues. However, those plants not supplied with sufficient natural sources of Si may benefit from its exogenous application. Selenium, an essential element for animals and humans, has also been found to be beneficial to plants. Like Si, Se also plays a protective role in conferring tolerance to certain abiotic and biotic stresses. In recent years, the production and applications of nanoparticles (NPs) have greatly increased in many industries and research related to Se and Si-NPs-mediated abiotic stresses and nutritional quality improvements in plants has received considerable interest by the scientific community and proved as a more rapid, cost-effective, and more sustainable way than conventional treatment technologies. While significant progress was made in Se and Si biochemistry in relation to stress tolerance, an in-depth understanding of the molecular mechanisms associated with the Se and Si and their NPs-mediated stress tolerance and bio-fortification in plants is still lacking. Gaining a better knowledge of the regulatory and molecular mechanisms that control Se and Si uptake, assimilation, and environmental stress tolerance in plants is therefore essential to develop modern crop varieties that are more resilient to environmental stresses and improved nutritional qualities which will ultimately lead to increase agricultural production and reduce environmental contamination.

This special issue welcomes submissions of original research, methods, and comprehensive- and mini-review articles related to Se and Si-mediated abiotic and biotic stress responses and adaptive and tolerance mechanisms in crop plants.

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