Dr.  Iqbal  Hussain
Government College University, Faisalabad,  Pakistan

Title: Role of Silicon in Alleviating Environmental Stresses in Sustainable Crop Production

Abstract:

In the last decades, the concentration of atmospheric CO₂ and the average temperature have been increasing, and this trend is expected to become more severe in the near future. Moreover, environmental stresses exposure represents a threat for ecosystems and agriculture. Environmental changes negatively affect plant growth, biomass and yield production, and also enhance plant susceptibility to pests and diseases. Chemical fertilizer is gaining increasing attention and has been the center of much research which indicating complex beneficial and harmful effects. Chemical fertilizer might cause some environmental hazards to the biosphere, especially in the agricultural ecosystem. The application of silicon (Si) fertilizer in agriculture has been proved to be able to create good economic and environmental benefits. Si is the second most abundant earth crust element. Si fertilizer improves soil quality and alleviates biotic and abiotic crop stress. It is of great significance to understand the function of Si fertilizer in agricultural utilization and environmental remediation. Its use in agriculture enhances plant silicon uptake, mediates plant salt and drought stress and remediates heavy metals. Plants take up silicon from the soil in the form of mono silicic acid, which is the only plant-available form of silicon in the soil. The mono-silicic acid maintains the plant's protection against the effects of heavy metal contamination. However, phenomena associated with Si fertilization, such as increased plant resistance to drought, frost, and viral attacks, were not explained. New data obtained from greenhouse, laboratory, and field experiments, as well as from literature sources, allowed a new hypothesis to be formed with regard to the reinforcement of the plant's defense system by active Si. According to the hypothesis, plants, as well as every other living organism have unique protective mechanisms which involve in part the mobile Si compounds. It is speculated that the function of the Si constituent can provide an additional synthesis of stress-protection molecules, and this synthesis is carried out under genetic control but without the “physical” participation of the genetic apparatus. The active forms of Si within plants are considered a matrix depot for the formation of compounds that assist the organism(s) to maintain positive homeostasis under stressful conditions. This hypothesis provides the possibility of elaborating new ways to protect cultivated plants against unfavorable conditions and biotic stresses.

Keywords: plants, silicon, active silicon, stress tolerance

·    Sumaira Thind, Iqbal Hussain*, Shafaqat Ali, Rizwan Rasheed and Muhammad Arslan Ashraf (2021). Silicon application modulates growth, physio-chemicals and antioxidants in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) exposed to different cadmium regimes. Dose-Response, 19 (2):1-15.

·    Sumaira Thind, Iqbal Hussain, Shafaqat Ali, Saddam Hussain, Rizwan Rasheed, Basharat Ali, Hafiz Athar Hussain (2020). Physiological and biochemical bases of foliar silicon-induced alleviation of cadmium toxicity in wheat. Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 20(4), 2714-2730.

·    Iqbal Hussain, Abida Parveen, Rizwan Rasheed, Muhammad Arslan Ashraf, Muhammad Ibrahim, Saima Riaz, Zarbhakhat Afzaal, and Muhammad Iqbal (2019). Exogenous silicon modulates growth, physio-chemicals and antioxidants in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) exposed to different temperature regimes. Silicon, 11, 2753–2762.

·    Iqbal Hussain, Muhammad Arslan Ashraf, Rizwan Rasheed, Anum Asghar, Muhammad Asim Sajid, Muhammad Iqbal. (2015). Exogenous application of silicon at the boot stage decreases accumulation of cadmium in wheat grains. Brazilian Journal of Botany, 38(2), 223-234.

·    Muhammad Hamzah Saleem, Kamal Usman, Abida Parveen, Shahid Ullah Khan, Iqbal Hussain, Xiukang Wang, Huda Alshaya, Mohamed A. El-Sheikh, Shafaqat Ali (2022). Silicon Fertigation regimes attenuates cadmium toxicity and phytoremediation potential in two Maize (Zea mays L.) cultivars by minimizing its uptake and oxidative stress. Sustainability 14 (3), 1462.

Biography:

Dr. Iqbal Hussain was born on February 10, 1973 at District Layyah (Punjab) Pakistan. He has been working as Tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Botany, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan Since 17-12-2017. He had completed his M.Sc (Botany) in 1995 from Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan. He earned Indigenous Ph.D. Fellowship Program (5000-Fellowship) Batch II (Higher Education Commission, Pakistan) in 2004. He got admission to Ph.D. Botany at Department of Botany, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. He completed a part of his thesis research under the International Research Support Initiative Program (IRSIP) of HEC, Pakistan in 2008 in the Department of Environmental Life Sciences, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. He accomplished his Ph.D. degree in November 2009. In 2011, he joined as Assistant Professor to the Department of Botany, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan under IPFP (Interim Placement of Fresh PhDs Program) of HEC. He has completed his Post- Doctorate from the Department of Environmental Life Sciences Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan (2017-2018) under the Foreign Post-Doc Fellowship Program of PHEC. He has expertise in plant physiology-molecular biology, Identification of Physio-biochemical markers of stress tolerance, Thermal adaptation of plants for studying molecular and genetic mechanisms. Moreover, he has Interested in Environmental Sciences specifically pollution, food contamination, toxic compounds, and their remediation from Environment. He supervised research theses of MS and Ph.D. in described areas. Over the following years, he presented his research work at several National and International conferences.