Abstract
Plant production under climate changes requires unique treatments to overcome the detrimental effects of abiotic stress, such as water deficiency stress. Silicon (Si) has many beneficial effects, especially in plants subjected to different types of stress. Hence, Si foliar application was used to study its potential effects on boosting osmolytes content, activity of antioxidant enzymes, growth of vegetative and flowering organs, and yield of squash plants (Cucurbita pepo L.) under deficit irrigation. Two field experiments were conducted during the winter seasons of 2019 and 2020 at the Experimental Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Egypt. Three concentrations of Si at 0, 2000 and 4000 ppm in the form of monosilicic acid (H4SiO4) under two levels of water irrigation at 80% of water holding capacity (WHC) as control and 50% of WHC as drought treatment. Drought treatment significantly reduced the growth parameters: shoot height, shoot fresh and dry weights, leaves number/plant, average leaf area, fruit setting and yield traits, and the physiological attributes: leaf relative water content (LRWC), total chlorophylls (SPAD), total soluble proteins (TSP) and catalase (CAT) activity. Meanwhile, significant increases in the concentrations of stress indicators (total free amino acids and proline) were observed compared to the control plants (80% WHC). Both rates of Si achieved marked increases in the vegetative growth, flowering, chlorophylls, LRWC, TSP, superoxide dismutase (SOD), CAT, peroxidase (POD) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, which in turn reflects on improving fruit setting %, total fruits, and yield of squash plants under well or deficit irrigation. Spraying the high level of Si (4000 ppm) was the most effective treatment that emended the adverse effects of drought.
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Claims 11
Claim · model-written summary
Drought reduced squash shoot growth and leaf area.
- Taxon
- squash plantse1
- Treatment
- Drought treatmente0
- Outcome
- shoot height, shoot fresh and dry weights, leaves number/plant, average leaf areae0
- Direction
- reducede0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“Drought treatment significantly reduced the growth parameters: shoot height, shoot fresh and dry weights, leaves number/plant, average leaf area”
e1“squash plants (Cucurbita pepo L.)”
Claim · model-written summary
Drought reduced fruit setting and yield traits.
- Taxon
- squash plantse1
- Treatment
- Drought treatmente0
- Outcome
- fruit setting and yield traitse0
- Direction
- reducede0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“Drought treatment significantly reduced the growth parameters: shoot height, shoot fresh and dry weights, leaves number/plant, average leaf area, fruit setting and yield traits”
e1“squash plants (Cucurbita pepo L.)”
Claim · model-written summary
Drought reduced leaf water content, chlorophyll and soluble proteins.
- Taxon
- squash plantse1
- Treatment
- Drought treatmente0
- Outcome
- leaf relative water content (LRWC), total chlorophylls (SPAD), total soluble proteins (TSP)e0
- Direction
- reducede0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“Drought treatment significantly reduced the growth parameters: shoot height, shoot fresh and dry weights, leaves number/plant, average leaf area, fruit setting and yield traits, and the physiological attributes: leaf relative water content (LRWC), total chlorophylls (SPAD), total soluble proteins (TSP) and catalase (CAT) activity.”
e1“squash plants (Cucurbita pepo L.)”
Claim · model-written summary
Drought reduced catalase activity.
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“Drought treatment significantly reduced the growth parameters: shoot height, shoot fresh and dry weights, leaves number/plant, average leaf area, fruit setting and yield traits, and the physiological attributes: leaf relative water content (LRWC), total chlorophylls (SPAD), total soluble proteins (TSP) and catalase (CAT) activity.”
e1“squash plants (Cucurbita pepo L.)”
Claim · model-written summary
Drought increased total free amino acids and proline compared with controls.
- Taxon
- squash plantse1
- Outcome
- total free amino acids and prolinee0
- Direction
- increasese0
- Comparator
- control plants (80% WHC)e0
Not reportedTreatment
Verbatim
e0“significant increases in the concentrations of stress indicators (total free amino acids and proline) were observed compared to the control plants (80% WHC)”
e1“squash plants (Cucurbita pepo L.)”
Claim · model-written summary
Both silicon rates increased vegetative growth and flowering under both irrigation regimes.
- Taxon
- squash plantse0
- Treatment
- Both rates of Sie0
- Outcome
- vegetative growth, floweringe0
- Direction
- increasese0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“Both rates of Si achieved marked increases in the vegetative growth, flowering, chlorophylls, LRWC, TSP, superoxide dismutase (SOD), CAT, peroxidase (POD) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, which in turn reflects on improving fruit setting %, total fruits, and yield of squash plants under well or deficit irrigation.”
Claim · model-written summary
Both silicon rates increased chlorophyll, leaf water content and soluble proteins.
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“Both rates of Si achieved marked increases in the vegetative growth, flowering, chlorophylls, LRWC, TSP, superoxide dismutase (SOD), CAT, peroxidase (POD) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, which in turn reflects on improving fruit setting %, total fruits, and yield of squash plants under well or deficit irrigation.”
Claim · model-written summary
Both silicon rates increased SOD, CAT and POD activity.
- Taxon
- squash plantse0
- Treatment
- Both rates of Sie0
- Outcome
- superoxide dismutase (SOD), CAT, peroxidase (POD)e0
- Direction
- increasese0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“Both rates of Si achieved marked increases in the vegetative growth, flowering, chlorophylls, LRWC, TSP, superoxide dismutase (SOD), CAT, peroxidase (POD) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, which in turn reflects on improving fruit setting %, total fruits, and yield of squash plants under well or deficit irrigation.”
Claim · model-written summary
Both silicon rates increased PPO activity.
- Taxon
- squash plantse0
- Treatment
- Both rates of Sie0
- Outcome
- polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activitye0
- Direction
- increasese0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“Both rates of Si achieved marked increases in the vegetative growth, flowering, chlorophylls, LRWC, TSP, superoxide dismutase (SOD), CAT, peroxidase (POD) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, which in turn reflects on improving fruit setting %, total fruits, and yield of squash plants under well or deficit irrigation.”
Claim · model-written summary
Both silicon rates improved fruit setting, fruit number and yield.
- Taxon
- squash plantse0
- Treatment
- Both rates of Sie0
- Outcome
- fruit setting %, total fruits, and yielde0
- Direction
- improvinge0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“Both rates of Si achieved marked increases in the vegetative growth, flowering, chlorophylls, LRWC, TSP, superoxide dismutase (SOD), CAT, peroxidase (POD) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, which in turn reflects on improving fruit setting %, total fruits, and yield of squash plants under well or deficit irrigation.”
Claim · model-written summary
The 4000 ppm silicon spray was most effective in ameliorating drought effects.
- Taxon
- squash plantse1
- Treatment
- Spraying the high level of Si (4000 ppm)e0
- Outcome
- adverse effects of droughte0
- Direction
- most effectivee0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“Spraying the high level of Si (4000 ppm) was the most effective treatment that emended the adverse effects of drought.”
e1“squash plants (Cucurbita pepo L.)”
The same questions in other papers
silicon atom · growth · Cucurbita (pumpkins)Results agree
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- positive
silicon atom · yield · Cucurbita (pumpkins)Results agree
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See all 5 papers →drought · yield · Cucurbita (pumpkins)Results differ
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- no effect
- negative
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See all 5 papers →drought · physiology: antioxidant enzymes · Cucurbita (pumpkins)Positive and negative results
1 in the opposite direction
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drought · physiology: water · Cucurbita (pumpkins)Positive and negative results
2 papers in the same direction as this paper · 1 in the opposite direction
- positive
- negative
- negative
drought · growth · Cucurbita (pumpkins)Positive and negative results
5 papers in the same direction as this paper · 2 in the opposite direction
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See all 8 papers →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.