TY - JOUR

T1 - Silicon application improves strawberry plant antioxidation ability and fruit nutrition under both full and deficit irrigation

AU - Xu, Xiangnan

AU - Zou, Guoyuan

AU - Li, Yanmei

AU - Sun, Yanxin

AU - Liu, Fulai

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Deficit irrigation has been widely studied on fruit quality improvement, but it also leads to yield losses, especially, fruit size reduction. The objective of this study was to investigate if the silicon application could offset the negative influence brought by deficit irrigation while enhancing fruit quality. A two-factor-three-level split plot greenhouse experiment was conducted where the Fragaria × ananassa cv. Kaorino plants were subjected to full irrigation (FI) or deficit irrigation (DI), and within each irrigation regime the plants were subjected to no silicon application (N), silicon foliar application (L) or silicon root application (R), resulting in 6 treatments in total, viz., FIN, FIL, FIR, DIN, FIL and DIR. The results showed that DI increased the fruit sugars and anthocyanins concentrations without reducing the fruit size. Compared to foliar application, silicon root application was more favorable for fruit quality improvement, especially under full irrigation, by which the anthocyanins, ascorbate and glutamate concentration were significantly increased. Under deficit irrigation, silicon root application also altered the leaf photosynthetic pigments composition, increasing carotenoids and reducing membrane peroxidation to protect the photosynthetic complexes. Also, only when plants were under deficit irrigation, the silicon foliar application could perform better on the improvement of antioxidant capacity and nitrogen assimilation, enhancing the ROS scavenging and amino acids synthesis. Collectively, exogenous silicon application is promising in alleviating the negative effects of DI on fruit yield while improving fruit quality of strawberry.

AB - Deficit irrigation has been widely studied on fruit quality improvement, but it also leads to yield losses, especially, fruit size reduction. The objective of this study was to investigate if the silicon application could offset the negative influence brought by deficit irrigation while enhancing fruit quality. A two-factor-three-level split plot greenhouse experiment was conducted where the Fragaria × ananassa cv. Kaorino plants were subjected to full irrigation (FI) or deficit irrigation (DI), and within each irrigation regime the plants were subjected to no silicon application (N), silicon foliar application (L) or silicon root application (R), resulting in 6 treatments in total, viz., FIN, FIL, FIR, DIN, FIL and DIR. The results showed that DI increased the fruit sugars and anthocyanins concentrations without reducing the fruit size. Compared to foliar application, silicon root application was more favorable for fruit quality improvement, especially under full irrigation, by which the anthocyanins, ascorbate and glutamate concentration were significantly increased. Under deficit irrigation, silicon root application also altered the leaf photosynthetic pigments composition, increasing carotenoids and reducing membrane peroxidation to protect the photosynthetic complexes. Also, only when plants were under deficit irrigation, the silicon foliar application could perform better on the improvement of antioxidant capacity and nitrogen assimilation, enhancing the ROS scavenging and amino acids synthesis. Collectively, exogenous silicon application is promising in alleviating the negative effects of DI on fruit yield while improving fruit quality of strawberry.

KW - Fruit quality

KW - Glutamate

KW - Nitrogen assimilation

KW - Sugar

KW - Water deficits

U2 - 10.1016/j.scienta.2022.111684

DO - 10.1016/j.scienta.2022.111684

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85141762709

VL - 309

JO - Scientia Horticulturae

JF - Scientia Horticulturae

SN - 0304-4238

M1 - 111684

ER -