Effects of Sink Removal on Photosynthesis and Senescence in Leaves of Soybean (Glycine max L.) Plants

Abstract

Photosynthetic rate, ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase activity, specific leaf weight, and leaf concentrations of carbohydrates, proteins, chlorophyll, and inorganic phosphate were determined periodically from midbloom until maturity in leaves of soybean plants (Glycine max L., var. Hodgson) from which reproductive and vegetative sinks had been removed 32 hours before measurement, or continuously since midbloom.Leaf photosynthesis, measured in the top of the canopy, was partially inhibited by both sink removal treatments. This inhibition was of constant magnitude from midbloom until maturity.Leaf photosynthesis in the top of the canopy declined from midbloom until maturity in the control as well as in the desinked plants. The decline in photosynthesis was gradual at first, but later became more abrupt. The photosynthetic decline was equally evident in the yellowing leaves of control plants and in the dark green leaves of the continuously desinked plants.Neither the inhibition of photosynthesis by sink removal nor the decline in photosynthetic rate with time was clearly related to any of the measured traits.