The use of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] as human food has been encountered difficulties due to beany flavor. The beany flavour is originated from lipoxygenases (EC 1.13.11.12). Soybean seed lipoxygenases have been extensively studied, however, the diversity and characteristics of lipoxygenases present in leaves are still being studied. Besides its catalytic activity, lipoxygenases from soybean leaves have been implicated in temporary nitrogen storage and response to stress. The primary objective of this research was to investigate the effect of floral primordial elimination (sink deprivation) on soybean leaves lipoxygenases activity. Two different genotypes differing in the presence (IAC-100) or absence (IAC-100 TN) of LOX in their seeds were used. The enzymatic kinetics analysis showed two pronounced peaks of activity at pH 5 and 6.5, with optimal temperature of 25ºC. The KM app values were similar for both genotypes suggesting that there was not effect of genetic manipulation of seeds lipoxygenases on genes expression that code for leave lipoxygenases. However, the KM app values were different between the vegetative and reproductive development stage, suggesting that there are differents pool of lipoxygenases between the two stages.
soybean leaves; lipoxygenases; kinetic parameters; vegetative protein; stress; Glycine max