RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PHOTOSYNTHETIC PIGMENTS AND SEED YIELD COMPONENTS IN SOYBEAN CULTIVARS IN A SEMI-ARID REGION

Abstract

The field experiment was conducted according to a randomized block design with three replications. Most common cultivated soybean cultivars (Arsoy, Atalkisi, Blaze, Bravo, Ilksoy, Lider, Mersoy, Nova and Traksoy) in Turkey were selected as the plant materials of the study. Agronomic properties such as plant height, first pod height, number of branches, number of pods, thousand-seed weight, plant seed yield, seed yield, crude oil ratio, crude oil yield, chlorophyll a, b, total chlorophyll and carotenoids contents were determined to assess the yield performances of the soybean cultivars. The results showed that yield and yield components were significantly different among soybean cultivars. Although grown under irrigated conditions, the differences in climate factors between the years caused a significant impact on yield and yield components. Photosynthetic pigments, i.e., chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and carotenoids, and consequently, seed yield was affected by stress conditions. The crude oil content of cultivars ranged from 21.45 to 26.6%, and seed yield varied between 1736.8 and 2496.24 kg ha(-1). The results revealed that Atakisi and Atasoy cultivars with high photosynthetic pigment contents can be recommended to obtain high seed and oil yields under semi-arid climate condition.