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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stoneville, Mississippi » Crop Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #354606
Title: Carbon isotope ratio fractionation among plant tissues of soybean

Author
item KALER, AVJINDER - University Of Arkansas
item BAZZER, SUMANDEEP - University Of Arkansas
item SANZ-SAEZ, ALVARO - University Of Missouri
item Ray, Jeffery - Jeff
item FRITSCHI, FELIX - University Of Missouri
item PURCELL, LARRY - University Of Arkansas

Submitted to: The Plant Phenome Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/23/2018
Publication Date: 9/24/2018
Publication URL: https://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/6471001
Citation: Kaler, A., Bazzer, S., Sanz-Saez, A., Ray, J.D., Fritschi, F., Purcell, L. 2018. Carbon isotope ratio fractionation among plant tissues of soybean. The Plant Phenome Journal. 1:180002. https://doi.org/10.2135/tppj2018.04.0002.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2135/tppj2018.04.0002

Interpretive Summary: As water used in crop production becomes more scarce and expensive, it is important to consider how crops can use water more efficiently. In this study, we measured the water use efficiency of 20 soybean lines in different tissues at different times and in three environments. The relative rankings of the soybean lines were similar among environments, and the water use efficiency could be reliably determined using any of the plant tissues that were examined. Among the tissues evaluated, measuring water use efficiency in mature seed was the easiest. This simplifies measurements of water use efficiency in large numbers of samples such as required in breeding programs. Developing and releasing soybean cultivars with improved water use efficiency would be of benefit to any producer limited by water constraints.

Technical Abstract: Carbon isotope ratio (13C ratio) has been used as a proxy for water use efficiency (WUE) in several crops. We compared 13C ratio of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] tissues sampled at bloom with 13C ratio of mature seed (MS). Twenty maturity group IV accessions with contrasting 13C ratio values were evaluated in three environments. Genotype and environment effects on 13C ratio were significant for the uppermost mature trifoliolate (UT), center leaflets (CL) from main stems, whole shoot (WS), and MS, but there were no significant G by E interactions, indicating genotype rankings were similar among environments. Heritability of 13C ratio among tissues ranged from 0.79 to 0.94, and MS 13C ratio values were significantly correlated with 13C ratio from other tissues (r=0.69). For genotypes of similar maturity, MS 13C ratio may be used as a selection tool for WUE, simplifying the use of 13C ratio for high throughput phenotyping.