Efeito do ambiente parental na performance de gerações de soja cultivadas sob deficiência hídrica

Abstract

Environmental disturbances are common in the cropping system and drought is one of the main stress factors for plants. Under drought conditions, the growth and survival of a plant depend on its adaptive characteristics and acclimatization capacity. As environmental disturbances can occur multiple times, it is advantageous for plants to be able to remember the past and use this stored knowledge to adapt to new challenges during their life cycle and even transfer this information to the next generations. The aim of the first study was to evaluate changes in the physiological performance of soybean plants (originated from seeds and cultivars produced in different environments) subjected to drought. The aim of the second study was to evaluate the effects of drought on the transgenerational memory of plants from the first study, and to verify the influence of different seed production environments. The results allowed to detect possible transgenerational memory effects at different observation scales. While some groups of plants are influenced by possible memory effects on gas exchange and enzyme activity, other groups have memory effects on growth and production parameters. In addition, the suspension of irrigation of progenies of plants that also experienced water deficit interferes with the metabolism in different ways when considering the environment where the seeds come from (grandparents' environment). This study demonstrates that plants can express the effects of intergenerational and transgenerational memory in different ways to ensure their survival, and these effects can be influenced by the cultivar and by the soybean seed production environment.