Influence of seed molybdenum on nitrate reductase activity, shoot dry matter and grain yield of winter wheat cultivars

The influences of seed molybdenum on nitrate reductase activity(NRA) in seedling stage, shoot dry matter in stem elongation stage and grain yields in harvesting stage were compared with molybdenum application among 34 winter wheat cultivars grown on acid yellow brown earths. Seedling NRA(Table 2) was significantly and postitively correlated with seed molybdenum content(Table 1) regardless of further molybdenum application. The correlation of shoot dry matter in stem elongation stage to seed molybdenum content were also significant under molybdenum deficiency but not after molybdenum application. No significant relationships were observed between grain yields and seed molybdenum. However,seedling NRA, shoot dry matter in stem elongation stage and grain yields for most cultivars(Table 2～4)were significantly decreased on comparing to molybdenum application. These showed that seed molybdenum has some roles in seedling growth, but it was not sufficient to complete the whole life of plant(Table 5). Therefore molybdenum must be applied in order to get satisfactory grain yields from most cultivars.