Aug 2026· Frontiers in Plant Science· Vol 17· 0 citations· 290 references
Medicine
TL;DR
This integrated framework identifies Si as a context-dependent modulator of plant–rhizosphere interactions and provides a mechanistic basis for developing precise and sustainable Si-based salinity-management strategies.
Abstract
Silicon (Si) is widely recognized as a beneficial element that can improve plant performance under salt stress. However, a comprehensive understanding of its biological functions requires moving beyond isolated physiological responses toward an integrated view of plant signaling and rhizosphere processes. This narrative review critically synthesizes current evidence and proposes an “inside–outside” framework for Si-associated salt-stress mitigation. Internally, Si treatment has been reported to influence phytohormone homeostasis, particularly abscisic acid, jasmonic acid, and salicylic acid, while also affecting Ca2+-, nitric oxide-, and reactive oxygen species-related processes. These changes are associated with the regulation of stomatal behavior, root water transport, ion homeostasis, osmotic adjustment, antioxidant defense, and stress-responsive gene expression. Rather than acting as a universally established signal integrator, Si may modify the operating state, magnitude, and recovery kinetics of pre-existing stress-response networks by stabilizing membranes, restricting excessive Na+ accumulation, preserving K+ retention, and buffering cellular redox conditions. Externally, Si application can alter rhizosphere physicochemical properties, root-associated metabolites, and microbial community assembly. Si-associated enrichment of plant-beneficial microorganisms may contribute to nutrient cycling, ionic and osmotic regulation, redox protection, and plant growth, while microbial metabolites may reciprocally influence plant signaling and metabolism. Nevertheless, most microbiome functions remain inferred from community profiles and correlations, and causal validation is currently limited to a small number of experimental systems. Si uptake, transport, and spatial deposition provide the physiological basis for these interconnected responses, but their magnitude depends on plant species, genotype, Si-accumulation capacity, formulation, dose, application route, and stress intensity. This integrated framework identifies Si as a context-dependent modulator of plant–rhizosphere interactions and provides a mechanistic basis for developing precise and sustainable Si-based salinity-management strategies.
Soil salinity is a major threat to crop productivity, sustainable agriculture, and global food security, with more than 833 million hectares of land affected worldwide. Salt stress restricts plant growth through osmotic stress, ion toxicity, oxidative damage, membrane disruption, reduced photosynthesis, and yield loss. Plants respond through coordinated regulatory networks that connect early stress perception with ion balance, osmotic adjustment, hormone signaling, transcript regulation, and protein modification. Recent advances have identified several sensory and signaling modules involved in salinity responses, including calcium signaling, receptor like kinases, FERONIA, OSCA, MOCA, annexins, and mechanosensitive channels that detect ionic, osmotic, and mechanical changes. Established pathways such as the SOS pathway and GABA shunt are included as established background mechanisms for sodium homeostasis and metabolic adjustment under saline conditions. Hormonal networks involving abscisic acid, ethylene, jasmonic acid, auxin, gibberellins, and brassinosteroids coordinate root architecture, stomatal control, antioxidant defense, growth restraint, and post-stress recovery. Emerging regulatory layers mediated by microRNAs, phosphorylation, ubiquitination, and SUMOylation further fine tune transcript stability, protein activity, ion transport, redox balance, and stress resilience. A central challenge is the translational gap between model species and crops, since many mechanisms defined in Arabidopsis and rice still lack functional validation in major crop species and halophytes. Integrating conserved and species dependent mechanisms with crop centered validation will help convert molecular knowledge into breeding, genome editing, and management strategies for saline agriculture.
Muhammad Usman, Li Wang, Xiaojuan An et al.· Plant Science· 0 citations
Biotic stresses (pest feeding, pathogenic fungal/bacterial/viral infection) and diverse abiotic stresses (extreme temperature, drought, waterlogging, saline–alkali soil, heavy metal pollution, nutrient deficiency, UV-B, ozone) severely restrict crop growth and global agricultural yield. Lipids act as core membrane structural constituents and vital secondary signaling messengers, executing multi-layered adaptive balancing functions during cell-type interactive stress acclimation, rather than uniform whole-plant lipid responses. They sustain membrane structural integrity across distinct cell populations, serve as synthetic precursors of bioactive signaling molecules, and trigger cascaded transcriptional and metabolic reprogramming upon environmental stimuli to rebalance physiological status among different cell types. This review systematically summarizes cell-type interactive lipid-mediated plant defense and acclimation balance mechanisms across biotic and abiotic stress contexts. We elaborate the biological functions of fatty acids, phospholipids, galactolipids, sphingolipids and their derivatives (jasmonate, salicylic acid, phosphatidic acid, oxylipin) in stress signal transduction and antioxidant defense and strictly distinguish two categories of lipid changes under all stress types: active adaptive lipid remodeling and passive stress-induced lipid oxidative damage. Key contents include stress-triggered cell-type-specific membrane lipid remodeling, the hierarchical transcriptional regulatory network mediated by WRI1, LEC1, PHR, MADS and other transcription factors governing oil metabolism, as well as crosstalk between lipid metabolism and compartmentalized reactive oxygen species (reactive oxygen species (ROS)) signaling. We further compare conserved lipid-regulatory modules and species-specific divergent responses across model plants and economic oilseed crops, integrating state-of-the-art targeted/untargeted lipidomics, single-cell spatial lipidomics and multi-omics joint breeding strategies to improve multi-stress tolerance in oilseed crops. By consolidating global research progress up to 2025, including the two latest 2026 cross-species meta-analysis reviews, this review provides systematic theoretical support and operable multi-level technical frameworks for genetic engineering targeting conserved lipid pathways to breed stress-resilient high-oil crop germplasm, and highlights reliable lipid stress biomarker screening as a promising translational research direction.
Traditional breeding and modern techniques like Marker-Assisted Selection, Genetic Engineering, Genome Editing and Genomic Selection are used to identify and integrate desirable traits into new crop varieties, enabling breeders to develop more robust and stable crops.
Nitric oxide (NO) has emerged as a versatile signaling molecule that regulates plant development, stress responses, and redox homeostasis through interactions with reactive oxygen species (ROS), phytohormones, and other bioactive compounds. In horticulture, postharvest losses remain a major challenge due to ongoing metabolic activity associated with ripening and senescence. Increasing evidence identifies NO as a key regulator capable of mitigating these processes and extending shelf life. This Mini Review provides a concept-driven synthesis positioning NO as a central integrator of plant signaling networks. We highlight its role as a redox–hormonal hub coordinating interactions with ROS and phytohormones. Special emphasis is placed on the dual role of NO as both a signaling molecule and a modulator of nitro-oxidative stress during plant growth, fruit ripening, and postharvest physiology. We further discuss key molecular mechanisms underlying postharvest responses, together with current controversies related to NO biosynthesis, concentration-dependent effects, and practical application strategies.
Michaela Sedlářová, Tereza Jedelská, Aleš Lebeda et al.· Frontiers in Plant Science· 0 citations
A comprehensive theoretical framework linking physiological responses, molecular regulatory networks and practical field technologies is constructed, offering systematic theoretical references and technical guidance for salt-tolerant germplasm innovation and environmentally sustainable viticulture on saline soils.
Ting Zheng, Hongying Li, Ling-Zhu Wei et al.· International Journal of Mol...· 0 citations
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