Physiological Quality of Soybean Seed Cultivars (Glycine max (L.) Merr) with Different Maturity Groups

Background and Objective: Soybean is an important global commodity. As new soybean cultivars are released on an annual basis, cultivar-specific parameters related to maturity group can quickly became outdated. Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the physiological qualities of sixteen soybean cultivars of three different maturity groups. Materials and Methods: Two experiments (2011-2012 and 2012-2013) were conducted with 16 cultivars of soybeans of different maturity groups in other to evaluate the hypothesis that maturity groups have a role in soybean physiological qualities. Seed germination, accelerated seed aging, cold tolerance, electrical conductivity and tetrazolium tests were performed. Data were summarized and subjected to analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) and Tukey HSD test where differences were found as a mean comparison test. Correlation matrices and multivariate analysis (PCA, HCA and PLS-R) were also applied for dimensionality reduction seeking the most important variables related to seed physiological qualities. Results: Significant statistical differences (p<0.05) were found in all cultivars in germination capacity, aging, cold tolerance, electrical conductivity, seed vigor, seed viability, moisture and stink bug damage. Super early cultivars (SYN 3358, SYN 1163, BMX ENERGIA, EXP 9039) presented good physiological qualities (vigor, viability, cold tolerance and germination capacity). FUNDACEP 66, NIDERA 4766 and EXP 810 RR presented lower qualities. Conclusion: Seed vigor, aging, cold tolerance and viability were the main variables affecting physiological quality independent of maturity group. Higher vigor, seed viability and germination capacity was found in super early cultivars.