Liu, Bing and Liu, Xiao-Bing and Wang, Cheng and Li, Yan-Sheng and Jin, Jian and Herbert, S. J.
(2010)
Long distance transport of assimilates is shown to exist
in soybean plants.
African Journal of Agricultural Research Vol. 5(7), pp. 551-554, April 2010, 5 (7).
pp. 551-554.
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Abstract
Effect of source-sink distance on soybean yield was studied. Our hypothesis was that soybean can
redistribute assimilates from lower leaves to young pods formed at youngest part of stems across the
main stem to maintain yield. We artificially created two, four, six, eight, and ten-nodes of source-sink
distances in soybean plant. A reduction in the seed yield of remained sink occurred with the increase in
distance from the source. This was mostly due to a reduction of pod number caused by the increase of
the distance from the source. No pod reduction was found at the 2-node distance compared with control
plant. Reduction in seed size occurred for the 2- and10-node distance from the source. When
source-sink distance was four, six, eight nodes, seed size was similar to control. Our findings suggest
soybean plants are able to transport and use assimilates as far as 8 nodes distance. The successful
translocation of assimilate from lower nodes is mainly used for pod formation and seed filling over a
short distance, but can be translocated over a long distance and used for growth of remaining seed. This
suggests the reproductive sink of soybean plants has an internal mechanism to off-set yield loss to
ensure seed survival.
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