Photosynthesis of soybean cultivars released in different decades after grafting onto record-yield cultivars as rootstocks

Abstract

While photosynthesis of soybean has been enhanced by breeding, it remains to be clarified whether the improvement of root function could bring a further increase of photosynthetic capacity for the development of soybean cultivars. The objective of this grafting experiment was to determine the influence of record-yield soybean cultivars, Liaodou14 (L14) and Zhonghuang35 (Z35), as rootstocks on photosynthetic traits of cultivars released in different decades. Grafting of various soybean cultivars onto L14 or Z35 rootstocks showed a higher root physiological activity, which resulted in significant increases in some photosynthetic traits at the late grain-filling stage compared with the non-grafted and self-grafted plants. The genetic gain for some photosynthetic traits of cultivars released from 1966 to 2006 increased by using L14 and Z35 as rootstocks. It suggested that the photosynthetic traits of the recently released cultivars could increase more if their root functions are improved.