Role of Silicon on Enhancing Disease Resistance in Tropical Fruits and Vegetables: A Review
By: Darshani Weerahewa and Kosala Somapala
Open Access
|Dec 2016Abstract
Silicon (Si) has proven to enhance disease resistance in a wide range of tropical fruits and vegetables. It has been used in controlling various diseases: mildews, rots, moulds, wilt, blight, anthracnose and leaf spots. However, the highest number of records was available on reducing diseases of powdery mildews on fruits and vegetables belonging to the family Cucurbitaceae. Silicon-mediated defense responses in plant pathosystems are mainly attributed to the physical resistance, which involves reduced penetrability and/or increased hardness and abrasiveness of plant tissues because of silica deposition. The main mechanism is the chemical resistance, which involves chemical defenses to pathogen attack through the enhanced production of defensive enzymes and the production of antifungal compounds such as phenolic metabolism products, phytoalexins and pathogenesis related proteins. Silicon has been applied as soluble silicates to the substrate or to soilless media at pre-harvest level on reducing disease susceptibility. Post-harvest dips of fresh produce in silicate solutions and use of Si combined with a biocontrol agent are other aspects of silicon application in controlling diseases in fruits and vegetables.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4038/ouslj.v11i0.7347 | Journal eISSN: 2550-2816
Language: English
Page range: 135 - 162
Published on: Dec 29, 2016
Published by: Open University of Sri Lanka OUSL
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Keywords:
© 2016 Darshani Weerahewa, Kosala Somapala, published by Open University of Sri Lanka OUSL
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.