Aboveground biomass
The average aboveground biomass of the F1 plants and their hybrid female parent, wild soybean, was not significantly different, 85.35 g versus 82.28 g, respectively. In contrast, the average aboveground biomass of GM plants was significantly higher than that of F1 and wild soybean (Fig. 2).
The aboveground biomass of the F2 population and GM soybean was significantly higher than that of wild soybean, and there were no significant differences between the F2population and GM soybean in aboveground biomass. Our results also did not show any significant difference among the F2population in aboveground biomass.
The total aboveground biomass of the F3 population ranged from 144.06 g, 138.18 g and 131.54 g for the RR, RS and SS plants, respectively, and no significant differences were found in biomass within the F3 population. However, F3 had a significantly higher aboveground biomass (P < 0.05) than wild soybean, while F3had slightly higher aboveground biomass than GM soybean, but the difference was not significant.