ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Crop and Product Physiology
This article is part of the Research TopicRegulatory Effects of Irrigation and Fertilization on Aboveground and Underground Parts of CropsView all 10 articles
Silicon Nanoparticles Enhance Maize Yield and Water Productivity via Regulating Photosynthesis and Canopy Structure under Mild Regulated Deficit Irrigation
Provisionally accepted
- China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
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Silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) effectively mitigate drought stress in crops, yet their physiological mechanisms in maize remain unclear. This study conducted field experiments in the arid region of northwest China, setting up three maize genotypes (Zhengdan 958, Zhongdan 2, and MC670), two irrigation methods (full irrigation, FI, and regulated deficit irrigation, RDI), and two exogenous treatments (water as control, and SiNPs application). The RDI increased stomatal density (SD), intrinsic water use efficiency (iWUE), and water productivity (WP), albeit with a slight reduction in yield. However, the application of SiNPs increased the yield and WP across all three genotypes under both FI and RDI. Additionally, SiNPs notably enhanced SPAD values, stomatal conductance (gs), net photosynthesis rate (A), leaf area index (LAI), and the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (fPAR), while reducing the leaf inclination angle (LIA) at the middle ear position. Further analysis revealed the following mechanisms: (1) an increase in SPAD and gs enhanced A; (2) enhanced LAI and reduced LIA at the ear-bearing canopy layers significantly improved fPAR; and (3) the combined increase in A and fPAR synergistically contributed to increased maize yield. The improvements in WP were more strongly correlated with yield gains than with changes in evapotranspiration.
Keywords: Silicon nanoparticles, Regulated deficit irrigation, Leaf inclination angle, canopy intercepted net radiation, gas exchange
Received: 23 Aug 2025; Accepted: 29 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liang, Liao, Guo, Yang, Kang, Du, Tong and Ding. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Qi Liao
Risheng Ding
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