Figure 2.

Silicon (Si) induces resistance against the rice brown spot fungus Cochliobolus miyabeanus. (A, B) Effect of Si feeding on symptom development following spray inoculation of intact plants. Disease was scored daily using a 1–5 disease severity scale as outlined in Experimental procedures. The photograph shown in (A) depicts the representative disease symptoms on control (Ctrl) and Si‐fed plants at 3 days post‐inoculation. (C, D) Effect of Si feeding on the mean lesion area 3 days after inoculation of detached leaf pieces with four 15‐μL droplets of spore solution (n = 20, Mann–Whitney, α = 0.05). (E) Impact of different Si treatments on the level of brown spot resistance at 3 days post‐C. miyabeanus infection. Plants were either continuously treated with Si (Si+/Si+), deprived of Si 3 days prior to inoculation (Si+/Si–) or short‐term treated with Si starting 3 days prior to inoculation (Si–/Si+). Plant non‐treated with Si (Si–/Si–) served as controls (n = 24, Mann–Whitney, α = 0.05). Different letters indicate statistically significant differences. All experiments were repeated at least twice with similar results.