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

There has been great speculation about differential responses of transgenic and conventional cultivars of soybean lignin content in its stem, pod and seeds. Each characteristic is associated with the soaking of seeds and pods. Increase of weight of intact soybean seeds and pods at different soaking periods and their relation to the lignin contents in RR and conventional soybean plants was determined. Samples of 20 pods and 50 seeds from the conventional cultivars, Jataí, Celeste, and Conquista and their respective transgenic RR versions Silvânia, Baliza, and Valiosa were utilized. The pods were immersed into water for 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24, and 48 h, and the seeds were immersed into water for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 24, and 48 h. The intact pods showed some resistance against water in the first few hours of soaking, but the seeds possess greater absorption at the onset and later stabilization. There were no differences between RR transgenic and conventional cultivars for lignin content in stem, leaf, pod, and seed coat and the IVH of intact pods was found. It was difficult to establish an association between the soaking rate and transgenic characteristic in the evaluated soybean cultivars.