Lignification of the plant and related aspects of soaking seeds and soybean pod of RR and conventional cultivars

Abstract

There has been great speculation aboutdifferential responses of transgenic and conventional cultivars of soybeanlignin content in its stem, pod and seeds. Eachcharacteristic is associated withthe soaking of seeds and pods.Increase of weight of intact soybean seeds and podsat different soaking periods and their relation to the lignin contents in RR and conventional soybean plantswas determined. Samples of 20 podsand 50 seeds from the conventional cultivars,Jataí, Celeste,and Conquista and their respective transgenic RR versions Silvânia, Baliza,and Valiosawere utilized. The pods were immersed into waterfor 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24,and48 h, and the seeds were immersed into water for1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12,24, and 48 h. The intact pods showed some resistanceagainstwater in the first few hoursofsoaking, but the seeds possess greater absorption at the onset and later stabilization. There were nodifferences between RR transgenic and conventional cultivars for lignin content in stem, leaf, pod,and seed coat and theIVHof intact pods wasfound. It was difficult to establish an association between the soaking rateand transgeniccharacteristic in the evaluated soybean cultivars.