Seed size plays a large role in determining productivity of large seeded legumes. Inmany large seeded legumes such as pea and bean,\nactual yield, defined here as grain yield at harvestminus the weight of seed planted, is often a better measure of actual productivity\nthan grain yield at harvest, because the weight of planted seed varies with seed size. In many grain legumes, the weight of planted\nseed can be equal to 10% of the total grain yield, and minimizing the weight of planted seed could significantly impact actual yield.\nThis study produced an algorithm to examine the relationship between seed size, yield, and actual yield in silico.The output of this\nalgorithm predicted the ideotype for seed size in peas to bemuch lower (12.5 g./100 seeds) than the seed size of nearly all commercial\nvarieties, indicating that efficiency in pea cropping systems could be increased by reducing seed size.Modifications to the algorithm\nwould allow the prediction of the ideal seed size in other legumes.The algorithm predicts that there is likely very little correlation\nbetween seed size and grain yield, although larger seeded legumes will likely have a higher harvest index. Plant breeders can use\nthe ideotype predicted by this function to create varieties of peas and other large seeded legumes that have higher actual yield.The\nideotype for seed size was defined in pea.
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