Abstract
It has been generally considered that the low productivity of Leguminosae is caused by accumulation in the reproductive organs of a large amount of protein and lipid, since the biochemical costs of synthesizing these compounds is higher than that for carbohydrate. However, we report here on results which show that: the growth efficiencies (dry matter accumulated/ (dry matter accumulated + respiration)) of reproductive organs of Gramineae and Leguminosae were similar; the growth efficiency of rice in the vegetative stage was greater than that of soybean and field bean, regardless of nitrogen application rate; and when 14CO2, 14C-sucrose or 14C-asparagine were introduced to the leaf at the maturation stage, respiratory loss of the introduced 14C was greater in soybean and field bean, especially in the light, than in rice. Thus, it is assumed that the low productivity in Leguminosae is caused by a larger respiratory loss under both dark and light condition in the shoot, and not in the reproductive organs.
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Shinano, T., Osaki, M. & Tadano, T. Comparison of production efficiency among field crops related to nitrogen nutrition and application. Plant Soil 155, 207–210 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00025020
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00025020