Transcriptomic analysis of the effect of silicon on wheat plants infected or uninfected with powdery mildew

The supply of soluble silicon (Si) to plants has been associated with many benefits that remain poorly explained and often contested. In this work, the effect of Si was studied on wheat plants under both control and pathogen stress (Blumeria graminis f.sp. tritici (Bgt)) conditions by conducting an exhaustive transcriptomic analysis (55,000 genes) aimed at comparing the differential response of plants under four treatments. The response to the supply of Si on control (uninfected) plants was limited to 47 genes providing little evidence of regulation of a specific metabolic process. Plants reacted to inoculation with Bgt by an up-regulation of many genes linked to stress and metabolic processes and a down-regulation of genes linked to photosynthesis. Supplying Si to inoculated plants largely prevented disease development, a phenotypic response that translated into a nearly perfect reversal of genes regulated by the effect of Bgt alone. These results suggest that Si plays a limited role on a plants metabolism in absence of stress, even in the case of a high-Si accumulating monocot such as wheat. On the other hand, the benefits of Si, in the form of biotic stress alleviation, were remarkably aligned with a counter-response to transcriptomic changes induced by the pathogen Bgt.

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Chain F, Côté-Beaulieu C, Belzile F, Menzies JG, Bélanger RR