Exley, C, Guerriero, G and Lopez, X (2020) How is silicic acid transported in plants? Silicon, 12 (11). 2641 - 2645. ISSN 1876-990X

[thumbnail of Exley2020_Article_HowIsSilicicAcidTransportedInP.pdf]
Preview
Text
Exley2020_Article_HowIsSilicicAcidTransportedInP.pdf - Published Version

Download (360kB) | Preview

Abstract

Plants accumulate silicon in their tissues as amorphous silica. The form of silicon taken up by plants is silicic acid, a neutral molecule that passes through membrane channels with water. After seminal work on rice identified an aquaporin that appeared to mediate the passage of silicic acid, several papers followed and classified similar channels (referred to as “transporters”) in a number of plant species. These channels have been described as essential for silicon uptake and specific for the metalloid. Herein, we critically review the published data on the characterisation of one channel in particular, Lsi1, and identify possible caveats in results and limitations in methods used. Our analysis does not support the suggestion that the identified channels are specific for silicic acid. Computational analyses of the size of the Lsi1 pore additionally suggest that it may not play a significant role in mediating the movement of silicic acid in planta. We suggest that to avoid further confusion, channels currently implicated in the transport of silicic acid in planta are not referred to as silicon-specific transporters. Future research including the use of molecular dynamics simulations will enable the unequivocal identification of channels involved in silicon transport in plants.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Silicic acid, Silica, Plants, Aquaporin, Oocytes
Subjects: Q Science > Q Science (General)
Q Science > QK Botany
S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General)
S Agriculture > SB Plant culture
Divisions: Faculty of Natural Sciences > School of Life Sciences
Related URLs:
Depositing User: Symplectic
Date Deposited: 23 Oct 2020 08:03
Last Modified: 23 Oct 2020 08:03
URI: https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/8790

Actions (login required)

View Item
View Item