A study on indicators and evaluation stages of aluminum tolerance in soybean

Abstract

To determine an appropriate indicator and a suitable stage for evaluating tolerance of soybeans to aluminum (Al) toxin is one of the keys to effective breeding for the trait. Seventeen accessions selected as tolerant from a previous test program by using average membership index (FAi) as indicator, plus one tolerant (PI.416937) and one sensitive (NN1138-2) check, were assayed in sand culture pot experiments, totaling four experiments, each for evaluation at V3, V5, V7 and V9 stage, respectively, each in a randomized complete block design with three replications, and each genotype exposed to two Al levels (0 and 480 μM). The relative values of shoot dry weight (RSDW), root dry weight (RRDW), total plant dry weight (RTDW), total root length (RTRL) and total root surface area (RRSA) as the tolerance indicators as well as FAi were compared. All the indicators showed significant variation in Al tolerance among genotypes over and across the leaf stages, but Genotype × Stage interactions were significant only for RTRL and RRSA, indicating that they were less stable among stages than RTDW, RSDW and RRDW. Among the latter three, RTDW was chosen as the major indicator of Al tolerance due to its relatively better stability, higher correlation with other indicators and easier measuring procedure than the others. The seedling age applicable for screening was not definitive, but V5 appeared to compromise between time spent resulting from screening the relatively older seedlings at later stages and low variation among genotypes at a younger stage. The differences of Al tolerance among the tested accessions were further detected by using RTDW, and superior Al tolerant accessions identified were PI.509080 (South Korea), N23533 and N24282 (Northeast China) and PI.159322 (USA), comparable to the putative tolerant check PI.416937 (Japan) at all vegetative stages.