Semi-automated Phenotyping of Soybean Seedlings and Its Relation With Physiological Seed Quality

The development of procedures enabling agility and effectiveness to the analyses of seed vigor are great advances for the seed research field. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the efficiency of the Seedling Analysis System (SAPL®) to seedling phenotyping and determining the physiological potential of soybean seeds, in comparison with the information provided by traditional vigor tests recommended for this species. The characterizing of physiological potential of the seed lots was carried out based on germination tests, first germination count, seedling emergence, cold test, and electrical conductivity. The results of these tests were compared with the data obtained using image analysis with the software SAPL®, which was used to evaluate the development seven- day old seedlings. It was obtained the length of shoot, primary root and entire seedling, growth rates, uniformity, vigor index and corrected vigor index, based on different variations of the growth/uniformity ratio, namely 80-20, 70-30, 60-40, in the vigor index calculation. Analysis of images of the seven-day old seedlings using SAPL® enables phenotyping of soybean seedlings and is a consistent and promising alternative for identifying differences in vigor between soybean seed lots, equivalent to that found with traditional vigor tests.