Maturity is not only critical for vigour and other seed quality characteristics but also impacts the subsequent plant performance. If these impacts on the subsequent plant are long lasting, the potential to produce vigorous, mature seed may also be affected.This scenario lends itself to the concept of seed maturity memory (SMM) -an understanding of how seed maturity may impact subsequent generations of plants and the vigour of the seeds with different maturity they produce. This study aimed to assess the existence and perpetuation of SMM in peanut, with an emphasis on early seedling vigour. Field physiological measurements and bioassay assessments were carried out on the second generation (G2) and third generation (G3) of peanut seeds with distinct parental maturity backgrounds. Our results suggested maintaining mature seed in both prior and offspring generations helped maintain high seed vigour in subsequent generations. The SMM effects varied between cultivars, with TUFRunner™ '727' exhibiting SMM, whereas FloRun™ '107' did not show SMM in the effects from first generation (G1) to G2 maturities. Overall, a seed resulting from parental plants established from immature seed somewhere in their pedigree was less vigorous than that maintained mature seeds in their pedigree. However, patterns of possible SMM were not always consistent, which could be partially attributed to differing environmental conditions each generation of seed experienced during development. These results highlight the importance of maintaining mature seeds in agricultural production and bring up the issue of ensuring seed maturity consistency during stress memory research assessing vigour characteristics.
Many crop species, including cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.), modify their above‐ and below‐ground growth to cope with water deficit stress. This acclimation to water deficit often triggers a biomass partitioning shift—allocating more biomass to the roots, to increase the accessibility of roots to water resources. However, additional carbon partitioning to roots may not always translate into increased water use and maintenance of aboveground biomass (ABM) and yield. Therefore, selecting an efficient root system architecture (RSA) should aim to sustain a high ABM production under a water deficit scenario. To better understand the associations of above and belowground biomass partitioning under moderate water deficit, this study evaluated the genotypic stability of 40 peanut genotypes in ABM and RSA in greenhouse experiments and further assessed genotypic differences in 4 site‐year field experiments. Our results suggested that higher ABM‐producing genotypes generally had high plasticity when subjected to water deficit whereas the low ABM‐producing genotypes had relatively high stability. Hierarchical clustering analysis further revealed that genotypes with a high root‐to‐shoot ratio potentially had increased genotypic stability in ABM underwater deficit. Interestingly, genotypes that maintained the highest ABM underwater deficit did not have the highest total root biomass and length. Instead, these genotypes had the highest root length in the top layer of soil (0–0.3 m) and relatively fewer roots in the deeper layer of soil (0.3–1 m). Greenhouse‐screened stable genotypes exhibited minimal yield reduction when subjected to mid‐season water deficit in some of the field validation experiments, but it also happened to some plastic genotypes, indicating that further validation of controlled environment screenings for genotypic water‐deficit tolerance in the field is necessary.
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