Salicylic Acid-Conjugated Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles Elicit Remarkable Resistance to Rice Sheath Blight

作者：Yiwen Wang, Yihan Chen, Ze Cheng, Yumeng Yuan, Xiang Xue, Zhenyu Li, Yuchen Song, Gaozhao Wu, Guangda Wang, Wenya Xie, Keming Hu, Zongxiang Chen, Shimin Zuo, Yi Liu, You Liang, Zhiming Feng · 发表于：Agronomy · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.3390/agronomy15040874 · 被引用次数：6 · 研究领域：Plant Disease Resistance and Genetics、Silicon Effects in Agriculture、Plant-Microbe Interactions and Immunity

Sheath blight (ShB), caused by the necrotrophic fungus Rhizoctonia solani, is one of the most serious rice diseases worldwide. In this study, we successfully grafted salicylic acid (SA) onto mesoporous silica nanoparticles through an amide-bond coupling method, forming functionalized MSN-SA nanoparticles. Physicochemical characterization showed that the MSN-SA nanoparticles were spherical, with an average particle size of approximately 30 nm and an SA loading rate of around 7.21%. The assessment of ShB resistance revealed that both SA and MSN-OH treatments were capable of inducing resistance to a certain extent. When SA and MSN-OH were applied in combination, the resistance was further augmented, indicating an additive effect between them. Intriguingly, MSN-SA treatment (50% in Lemont) exhibited a higher and more durable control efficacy compared with SA + MSN-OH treatment (33%). Moreover, field experiments demonstrated that the MSN-SA was safe for rice, and under severe disease conditions, it could recover 16.7% of the yield loss, thus highlighting its substantial application value. Further transcriptome analysis and physicochemical assays suggested that MSN-SA released SA in a slow and continuous manner, thus persistently activating the immune response, and that MSN-SA integrated the effects of SA and MSN-OH, thereby enhancing the ShB resistance. Altogether, our results provide new perspectives and a novel nanomaterial-based immune elicitor for the green control of ShB.