REVIEW Silicon in vascular plants: uptake, transport and its influence on mineral stress under acidic conditions Sofı ´a Pontigo 1 • Alejandra Ribera 2,3 • Liliana Gianfreda 4 • Marı ´a de la Luz Mora 3,5 • Miroslav Nikolic 6 • Paula Cartes 3,5 Received: 7 January 2015 / Accepted: 15 May 2015 / Published online: 26 May 2015 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015 Abstract Main conclusion So far, considerable advances have been achieved in understanding the mechanisms of Si uptake and transport in vascular plants. This review presents a comprehensive update about this issue, but also provides the new insights into the role of Si against mineral stresses that occur in acid soils. Such infor- mation could be helpful to understand both the differ- ential Si uptake ability as well as the benefits of this mineral element on plants grown under acidic conditions. Silicon (Si) has been widely recognized as a beneficial element for many plant species, especially under stress conditions. In the last few years, great efforts have been made to elucidate the mechanisms involved in uptake and transport of Si by vascular plants and recently, different Si transporters have been identified. Several researches indicate that Si can alleviate various mineral stresses in plants growing under acidic conditions, including alu- minium (Al) and manganese (Mn) toxicities as well as phosphorus (P) deficiency all of which are highly detri- mental to crop production. This review presents recent findings concerning the influence of uptake and transport of Si on mineral stress under acidic conditions because a knowledge of this interaction provides the basis for un- derstanding the role of Si in mitigating mineral stress in acid soils. Currently, only four Si transporters have been identified and there is little information concerning the response of Si transporters under stress conditions. More investigations are therefore needed to establish whether there is a relationship between Si transporters and the benefits of Si to plants subjected to mineral stress. Evi- dence presented suggests that Si supply and its subsequent accumulation in plant tissues could be exploited as a strategy to improve crop productivity on acid soils. Keywords Silicon uptake Á Silicon transporters Á Plant stress Á Acidic soils Á Phosphorus deficiency Á Aluminium toxicity Á Manganese excess Introduction In recent years, the beneficial role of silicon (Si) in agri- cultural systems has been increasingly recognized. Silicon is not an essential plant nutrient as defined by the first criterion of essentiality of Arnon and Stout (1939), since its absence does not prevent completion of the plant life cycle except for Equisetaceae (Chen and Lewin, 1969) and some algae (Likhoshway et al. 2006). Nevertheless, there is much evidence that Si is highly beneficial in improving & Paula Cartes paula.cartes@ufrontera.cl 1 Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias de Recursos Naturales, Universidad de La Frontera, Casilla 54-D, Temuco, Chile 2 Departamento de Produccio ´n Agropecuaria, Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias y Forestales Universidad de La Frontera, Casilla 54-D, Temuco, Chile 3 Scientific and Technological Bioresource Nucleus, Universidad de La Frontera, Casilla 54-D, Temuco, Chile 4 Dipartimento di Agraria, Universita ` Degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Naples, Italy 5 Departamento de Ciencias Quı ´micas y Recursos Naturales, Universidad de La Frontera, Casilla 54-D, Temuco, Chile 6 Plant Nutrition Research Group, Institute for Multidisciplinary Research, University of Belgrade, PO Box 33, Belgrade, Serbia 123 Planta (2015) 242:23–37 DOI 10.1007/s00425-015-2333-1