Abstract
1. Silicon (Si) is a beneficial nutrient that has been reported to ameliorate many abiotic and biotic stresses in plants, including insect herbivory. Insect herbivory has been shown to induce Si defences in plants, although the magnitude and nature of induction remain largely ambiguous. In particular, it is unclear whether herbivore induction of Si defences is confined to attacked tissues (local) or occurs elsewhere in the plant (systemic). 2. We grew cucumber, Cucumis sativus L. plants (var. Burpless F1 and Beit Alpha), an intermediate Si accumulator, hydroponically under Si‐supplemented or Si‐free conditions and measured the level of Si induction caused by a polyphagous chewing insect, the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). We also examined the impacts of Si on insect performance by conducting in vitro feeding assays on excised leaves ( ex situ ) and intact leaves on plants ( in situ ). 3. Herbivory significantly increased Si accumulation both locally in attacked leaves (21% increase in Beit Alpha and 17% in Burpless F1) and systemically in non‐attacked leaves (19% increase in Beit Alpha and 10% in Burpless F1). Si supplementation significantly increased % foliar Si and C:N ratio, while significantly decreasing larval relative consumption (RC) and relative growth rate (RGR) in the in situ assays. In ex situ assays, however, Si only reduced larval RGR when fed on Beit Alpha plants. 4. Our results confirm that Si‐based defences can also operate in moderate Si‐accumulating plants and, for the first time, that insect herbivory induces systemic Si accumulation equivalently between plant varieties.
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Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
Herbivory raised silicon accumulation in attacked Beit Alpha leaves by 21%.
- Taxon
- cucumber
Cucumis sativuse1 - Material
- Beit Alphae0
- Organ / stage
- attacked leavese0
- Treatment
- Herbivorye0
- Outcome
- Si accumulatione0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Value
- 21%e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Herbivory significantly increased Si accumulation both locally in attacked leaves (21% increase in Beit Alpha and 17% in Burpless F1)”
e1“cucumber, Cucumis sativus L. plants”
Claim · model-written summary
Herbivory raised silicon accumulation in attacked Burpless F1 leaves by 17%.
- Taxon
- cucumberCucumis sativuse1
- Material
- Burpless F1e0
- Organ / stage
- attacked leavese0
- Treatment
- Herbivorye0
- Outcome
- Si accumulatione0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Value
- 17%e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Herbivory significantly increased Si accumulation both locally in attacked leaves (21% increase in Beit Alpha and 17% in Burpless F1)”
e1“cucumber, Cucumis sativus L. plants”
Claim · model-written summary
Herbivory raised silicon accumulation in non-attacked Beit Alpha leaves by 19%.
- Taxon
- cucumberCucumis sativuse2
- Material
- Beit Alphae0
- Organ / stage
- non‐attacked leavese0
- Treatment
- Herbivorye1
- Outcome
- Si accumulatione1
- Direction
- increasede1
- Value
- 19%e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“systemically in non‐attacked leaves (19% increase in Beit Alpha and 10% in Burpless F1)”
e1“Herbivory significantly increased Si accumulation”
e2“cucumber, Cucumis sativus L. plants”
Claim · model-written summary
Herbivory raised silicon accumulation in non-attacked Burpless F1 leaves by 10%.
- Taxon
- cucumberCucumis sativuse2
- Material
- Burpless F1e0
- Organ / stage
- non‐attacked leavese0
- Treatment
- Herbivorye1
- Outcome
- Si accumulatione1
- Direction
- increasede1
- Value
- 10%e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“systemically in non‐attacked leaves (19% increase in Beit Alpha and 10% in Burpless F1)”
e1“Herbivory significantly increased Si accumulation”
e2“cucumber, Cucumis sativus L. plants”
Claim · model-written summary
Silicon supplementation increased foliar silicon and C:N ratio.
- Taxon
- cucumberCucumis sativuse1
- Treatment
- Si supplementatione0
- Outcome
- % foliar Si and C:N ratioe0
- Direction
- increasede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Si supplementation significantly increased % foliar Si and C:N ratio”
e1“cucumber, Cucumis sativus L. plants”
Claim · model-written summary
Silicon supplementation decreased larval relative consumption in intact-leaf assays.
- Taxon
- cucumberCucumis sativuse1
- Treatment
- Si supplementatione0
- Interactor
- Helicoverpa armigera
_gusano_cogollero.png?width=60)
Helicoverpa armigerae2pest - Outcome
- larval relative consumption (RC)e0
- Direction
- decreasinge0
- Setting
- in situ assayse0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
_gusano_cogollero.png?width=500)
Verbatim
e0“Si supplementation significantly increased % foliar Si and C:N ratio, while significantly decreasing larval relative consumption (RC) and relative growth rate (RGR) in the in situ assays”
e1“cucumber, Cucumis sativus L. plants”
e2“the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera”
Claim · model-written summary
Silicon supplementation decreased larval relative growth rate in intact-leaf assays.
- Taxon
- cucumberCucumis sativuse1
- Treatment
- Si supplementatione0
- Interactor
- Helicoverpa armigeraHelicoverpa armigerae2pest
- Outcome
- relative growth rate (RGR)e0
- Direction
- decreasinge0
- Setting
- in situ assayse0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Si supplementation significantly increased % foliar Si and C:N ratio, while significantly decreasing larval relative consumption (RC) and relative growth rate (RGR) in the in situ assays”
e1“cucumber, Cucumis sativus L. plants”
e2“the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera”
Claim · model-written summary
In excised-leaf assays, silicon reduced larval growth rate only on Beit Alpha.
- Taxon
- cucumberCucumis sativuse1
- Material
- Beit Alphae0
- Treatment
- Sie0
- Interactor
- Helicoverpa armigeraHelicoverpa armigerae2pest
- Outcome
- larval RGRe0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Setting
- ex situ assayse0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“In ex situ assays, however, Si only reduced larval RGR when fed on Beit Alpha plants.”
e1“cucumber, Cucumis sativus L. plants”
e2“the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera”
The same questions in other papers
silicon atom · nutrient: content · Cucumis sativus (cucumber)Positive and negative results
18 papers in the same direction as this paper · 2 in the opposite direction
- positive
- no effect
- no effect
17 papers more in this group
See all 21 papers →silicon atom · Helicoverpa armigera · Cucumis sativus (cucumber)Results agree
1 paper in the same direction as this paper
- positive
grazing · nutrient: content · Cucumis sativus (cucumber)Positive and negative results
1 in the opposite direction
- no effect
Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.