Chlorophyll fluorescence is a potential indicator to measure photochemical efficiency in early to late soybean maturity groups under changing day lengths and temperatures

Sonal Mathur; Beomseok Seo; Anjana Jajoo; Kambham Raja Reddy; Vangimalla R Reddy

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1228464

Chlorophyll fluorescence is a potential indicator to measure photochemical efficiency in early to late soybean maturity groups under changing day lengths and temperatures

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Oct 23:14:1228464. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1228464. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Sonal Mathur¹, Beomseok Seo^{1

2}, Anjana Jajoo³, Kambham Raja Reddy⁴, Vangimalla R Reddy¹

Affiliations

¹ Adaptive Cropping Systems Laboratory, USDA-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, MD, United States.
² School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, College of the Environment, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.
³ School of Biotechnology, Devi Ahilya University, Indore, India.
⁴ Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, United States.

Abstract

In this study, we employed chlorophyll a fluorescence technique, to indicate plant health and status in response to changing day lengths (photoperiods) and temperatures in soybean early and late maturity groups. Chlorophyll a fluorescence study indicates changes in light reactions in photosystem II. Experiments were performed for 3-day lengths (12.5, 13.5, and 14.5 h) and five temperatures (22/14°C, 26/18°C, 30/22°C, 34/26°C, and 40/32°C), respectively. The I-P phase declined for changing day lengths. Active reaction centers decreased at long day length for maturity group III. We observed that low temperatures impacted the acceptor side of photosystem II and partially impacted electron transport toward the photosystem I end electron acceptor. Results emphasized that higher temperatures (40/32°C) triggered damage at the oxygen-evolving complex and decreased electron transport and photosynthesis. We studied specific leaf areas and aboveground mass. Aboveground parameters were consistent with the fluorescence study. Chlorophyll a fluorescence can be used as a potential technique for high-throughput phenotyping methods. The traits selected in the study proved to be possible indicators to provide information on the health status of various maturity groups under changing temperatures and day lengths. These traits can also be deciding criteria for breeding programs to develop inbreed soybean lines for stress tolerance and sensitivity based on latitudinal variations.

Keywords: chlorophyll a fluorescence; day length (photoperiod); maturity group; photosystem II; soybean; temperature.

Grants and funding

This research was supported in part by the appointment of SM to the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Research Participation Program administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) through an interagency agreement between the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). ORISE is managed by ORAU under DOE contract number DE-SC0014664. All opinions expressed in this paper are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the policies and views of USDA, DOE, or ORAU/ORISE. SM wishes to thank USDA-ARS and ORISE for their support. Funding was provided by the US Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service (Grant No. USDAARS Project Number 8042-11660-001-00D). This work was partly supported by the Cooperative Agreement between the Agricultural Research Service, the US Dept of Agriculture, and the University of Washington [agreement number 58-8042-1-066].