INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE & BIOLOGY ISSN Print: 1560–8530; ISSN Online: 1814–9596 15–243/2016/18–2–337–345 DOI: 10.17957/IJAB/15.0091 http://www.fspublishers.org Full Length Article Short-day Photoperiod Effects on Plant Growth, Flower Bud Differentiation, and Yield Formation in Adzuki Bean (Vigna angularis) Weixin Dong1, Yingying Zhang2, Yanli Zhang1, Shuai Ren1, Yan Wei1 and Yuechen Zhang1* 1College of Agronomy, Agricultural University of Hebei & Key Laboratory of Crop Growth Regulation of Hebei Province, Baoding, 071001, China 2National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China *For correspondence:
[email protected];
[email protected] Abstract Adzuki bean, a typical short-day plant (SDP) has high value of pharmaceutical and health care. This study investigated the SD photoperiod effects on plant morphological traits, physiological parameters, flower bud differentiation characterization and yield formation. For the purpose, a subset of SD photoperiod treatments was set up in a SD sensitive cultivar Tangshanhongxiaodou. The results indicated that the SD photoperiod affected largely the plant growth traits, decreased the duration from flowering to seed-filling stage which can modify the plant dry mass allocations. The SD photoperiod treatments increased the contents of chlorophyll and soluble protein at late growth stages, the net photosynthetic rate (Pn) and transpiration rate (Tr) also increased at the three growth stages. The GA1+3 content reduced and the ABA content increased under SD photoperiod treatments. Under SD photoperiod treatments, the flower bud differentiation processes were promoted. The SD photoperiod treatments reduced the yield components and yield, but not affected significantly the yield components and yield under SD-12 h treatment compared with SD-8 h treatment.