TITLE:
Effect of Flood Stress on Soybean Seed Germination in the Field
AUTHORS:
Chengjun Wu, Pengyin Chen, Wade Hummer, Ailan Zeng, Mariola Klepadlo
KEYWORDS:
Soybean, Flood Stress, Seed Germination Rate, Fungicide Apron Maxx RTA, Yield Trait Group, Flood Trait Group
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.8 No.1,
January
9,
2017
ABSTRACT: Flooding is an abiotic stress that impacts soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] growth and reduces seed
germination. Effect
of flooding on soybean plant grown at different growth stage has been
previously conducted and reported. However, soybean seed germination responses
to flood stress are largely unknown. The objective of this study was to elucidate flooding influence on soybean
seed germination after planting in the field. The research showed that seed
germination rate (SGR) of each genotype, without flood stress, was significantly different
and ranged between 64.7% to
84.0% and 69.0% to
90.7% while using untreated and fungicide-treated seed (P Results
indicated that fungicide treatment improved soybean seed survival and germination
in the field. The average of SGR of high-yielding soybean group was significantly higher than those of
non-high-yielding soybean (P correlated with seed germination and survival. Under flood
stress in the field, SGR means of untreated and fungicide-treated seed significantly
decreased over eight flooding treatment times (P Flooding effect on germination between untreated and
fungicide-treated seed was not significantly different (P = 0.1559). Furthermore, comparing the
high-yielding and flood-tolerant
soybean groups showed no difference in their SGR means over eight flooding
treatment times (P =
0.7687 and P = 0.8490), indicating that soybean seed germination did not depend
on genotype, yield, and flood tolerance trait, and seed treated by fungicide
did not increase its germination in the field under the flood stress. Hence, it is necessary to develop
new soybean seed pelleting to improve seed germination in the field under
flooding conditions.