Agriculturae Conspectus Scientificus, Vol 90, No 2 (2025)

Above-Ground, Below-Ground, and Biochemical Properties of Soybeans Seedlings (Glycine max L.) under Drought Stress

Idowu Arinola OBISESAN, Vincent Ishola ESAN, Timothy Oyebamiji OGUNBODE, Olayinka Oluyemi OLURANTI

Pages: 101-112

Summary


Drought is one of the major obstacles to the cultivation of soybean. In the event of limited water supply, a functional root system provides biological advantages in case of drought and limited nutrient intake. It is therefore critical to understand how above-ground, belowground, and physio-biochemical drought responses relate to one another in soybean during drought. Twenty genotypes of soybeans were exposed to drought stress in randomized complete block design experiment for a period of 14 days. Measurements were made of the above-ground parameters (AGP): shoot height, leaf breadth, length and number, canopy wilting, and shoot dry weight. Measurements for below-ground parameters (BGP) were root dry weight, diameter, length and number of lateral roots. Chlorophyll a (Chlr a), Chlorophyll b (Chlr b), carotenoids, and proline concentrations were evaluated as biochemical parameters (BP). All parameters were measured and compared to find out which of the 20 genotypes of soybeans were drought-tolerant. There was a positive relationship between AGP and BGP. The Principal Component 1 (PC1), which is positively and significantly correlated with the genotypes TGm-4015, TGm-4400, TGm-951, and TGm-1326, were also positively and significantly correlated with canopy wilt, Chlr a and b, and carotenoids, as well as root length and dry weight, shoot dry weight, shoot height and high concentrations of Chlorophyll a and b and carotenoids during drought conditions. Genotypes TGm-1326, TGm-95, TGm-4414, TGm-1678, and TGm-99 had significant ABG and BGP benefits under drought, according to a principal component analysis (PCA) biplot. Therefore, soybean cultivars with advantageousn BG and BP under drought will be useful in germplasm improvement.


Keywords


legume, soybean, drought stress, root architecture, below-ground, above-ground

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