Drought-avoidant soybean germplasm maintains nitrogen-fixation capacity under water stress

Abstract

Inoculated soybeans (Glycine max L. (Merrill)) were grown in controlled environments to evaluate the relationship between genotype and plant water status on nodule function, nitrogen assimilation, growth rates, and seed yield. Plants were grown under well-watered (WW) and water-stressed (WS) conditions during the linear pod-filling growth stage in sand culture using N-free nutrient solution. Dry matter and N accumulation were greater for the drought-adapted Plant Introduction 416937 (PI) than for ‘Forrest’, a commercially adapted genotype of similar phenology. These differences are attributed to: (i) more favorable internal water balance throughout the pod-filling period (higher total leaf water potential), (ii) higher photosynthetic function (more total leaf area and higher net carbon exchange rates), and (iii) stronger nodule function (larger nodule mass, greater specific and total nodule activity, and thus more nitrogen assimilation) for the PI than for Forrest. While Forrest out yielded the PI under WW conditions, the percentage reduction in seed mass per plant was less for the PI than for Forrest when both genotypes were exposed to desiccating conditions. The inference is that soybean germplasm with the capacity to maintain tissue turgidity, and thus leaf and nodule function, during reproductively-imposed desiccation may reduce the extent to which yield is compromised during drought. These findings have implications for the role of symbiotic nitrogen fixation in conserving yield under dry weather conditions.