Reproductive partitioning and seed set efficiency in soybean, sunflower and maize

By C. Vega, Fernando H. Andrade, V. Sadras. 2001

183 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Seed number per plant (SNP) can be modelled as a function of plant growth rate during the critical period for seed set (PGR C ), the proportion of plant growth partitioned to reproductive organs ( P R ) and the minimum assimilate requirement per seed ( λ ). In comparison to PGR C , less attention has been given to P R and λ . In this paper, we analysed reproductive partitioning and λ in three species of contrasting reproductive strategies, soybean ( Glycine max L. Merrill), sunflower ( Helianthus annuus L.) and maize ( Zea mays L.). To study plant-to-plant variation and to characterise stability of the variables analysed, we focused on individual plants grown under a wide range of plant densities. In soybean and sunflower, reproductive partitioning comprised about 50% of shoot growth, was fairly stable in a wide range of plant growth, and only decreased in a few, very small plants. In comparison, reproductive partitioning in non-prolific maize showed an optimum, was generally below 50% and exhibited a strong variation and instability at plant growth rates ≅2 g/day. Among species, stability of reproductive partitioning correlated inversely with a PGR C threshold for reproductive growth and positively with reproductive plasticity at high PGR C . Consideration of reproductive partitioning improved estimation of seed number, particularly in maize, a species prone to barrenness. Seed number as a function of reproductive growth was adequately described through linear (soybean) and hyperbolic models with x -intercepts (sunflower and maize). Seed set efficiency in terms of seed number per unit of reproductive growth (Ef) was constant only in soybean. In sunflower and maize, Ef increased with decreasing reproductive growth and became highly variable and unstable when reproductive growth was close to the threshold for seed set. In maize, such threshold was higher than in soybean and sunflower possibly as a consequence of a higher minimum combined demand for assimilate, resulting from a higher λ and number of simultaneously developing sinks. Inclusion of parameters assessing (i) stability in reproductive partitioning at low plant growth rates, and (ii) the minimum assimilate requirement per seed might improve seed number estimation.

Subfields: Agronomy and Crop Science, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6b93452fbe0fa260c0d090730a28c8cc5f2c1904

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Citations in the corpus

Maize Nutrient Accumulation and Partitioning in Response to Plant Density and Nitrogen Rate: I. Macronutrients (2013, methodology): “At the plant scale, the association between plant and ear dry mass or nutrient allocation was fitted using a linear hyperbolic function (Vega et al., 2001):”
Fruiting efficiency: an alternative trait to further rise wheat yield (2015, background): “…determination” (e.g., for barley: Miralles et al. 2000 ; Prystupa et al. 2004 ; Arisnabarreta and Miralles 2010 ; maize: Otegui and Bonhomme 1998 ; Vega et al. 2001 ; Rattalino Edreira and Otegui 2012 ; and soybean: Jiang and Egli 1995 ; Kantolic and Slafer 2001 , 2005 ; Egli 2010 ; Kantolic et…”
Breeding for Yield Potential and Stress Adaptation in Cereals (2008, background): “Several studies have related kernel set to plant growth rate in the period of 10–15 days either side of flowering (e.g., Vega et al., 2001).”
Physiological and management factors contributing to soybean potential yield (2015, result): “Although, Vega et al. (2001) found decreased slightly with increasing BAR, which was consistent with earlier findings (Egli et al., 1985a; Egli and Zhenwen, 1991), they observed this effect in only a few, very small plants and suggested that this effect was negligible and that was a fairly stable…”
Physiological Determinants of Crop Growth and Yield in Maize, Sunflower and Soybean (2005, background): “In soybean and sunflower, low plant-growth thresholds for seed set (Vega et al., 2001a) help explain their tolerance to increases in plant density.”
Kernel Set in Maize Hybrids and Their Inbred Lines Exposed to Stress (2006, result): “In addition, these results confirm published reports that have suggested that there are common physiological mechanisms that confer general stress tolerance ( Tollenaar and Wu, 1999; Ba¨nziger et al., 2002; Echarte et al., 2004).”