| Summary: | Boron (B) is an essential micronutrient for plants, and its deficiency is a widespread nutritional disorder, particularly in high-demanding crops like <i>Brassica napus</i>. Over the past few decades, silicon (Si) has been shown to mitigate plant nutrient deficiencies of different macro- and micro-nutrients. However, the work on B and Si cross-talk has mostly been focused on the alleviation of B toxicity by Si application. In the present study, we investigated the effect of Si application on rapeseed plants grown hydroponically under long-term B deficiency (20 days at 0.1 µM B). In addition, a B-uptake labelling experiment was conducted, and the expression of the genes involved in B uptake were monitored between 2 and 15 days of B shortage. The results showed that Si significantly improved rapeseed plant growth under B deficiency by 34% and 49% in shoots and roots, respectively. It also increased the expression level of <i>BnaNIP5;1</i> and <i>BOR1;2c</i> in both young leaves and roots. The uptake labelling experiment showed the remobilization of previously fixed <sup>11</sup>B from old leaves to new tissues. This study provides additional evidence of the beneficial effects of Si under conditions lacking B by changing the expression of the <i>BnaNIP5;1</i> gene and by remobilizing <sup>11</sup>B to young tissues.
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