Leaf acid phosphatase (APase) activities of 274 soybean genotypes were surveyed under field conditions with two levels of P supplies, and a nutrient solution culture experiment with eight selected genotypes was subsequently conducted under greenhouse conditions to further characterize APase activity and its isoform expression induced by P starvation. Results from the field experiment showed that there was a great genotypic variation for leaf APase activity among the tested soybean genotypes from different origins, and APase activity in many of the tested genotypes (about 60%) was generally increased in the treatment without P fertilizer addition. Results from the nutrient solution culture experiment showed that APase activity in all the eight tested genotypes was generally enhanced by P starvation. Six isoforms of APases were detected in isoelectric focusing gels with samples from both young and old leaves. The activity of all the six isoforms was increased by P starvation, but no new APase isoform was induced. Our results suggest that leaf APase activity could serve as an enzymatic indicator of P starvation for soybean; the increase in leaf APase activity under low P stress was mainly caused by the increase in the activity of existing isoforms but not by the induction of new isoforms.
