Silvio Eugenio Castillo

Silvio Eugenio Castillo

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Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

2Years (2025-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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24 September 2025 in Plants
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
SCSilvio Eugenio Castillo
Silvio Eugenio Castillo
ARAragon Roxana
Aragon Roxana
NCNatacha P. Chacoff
Natacha P. Chacoff
Soybean (Glycine max) is a predominantly self-pollinating crop; however, its flowers exhibit traits associated with insect pollination. While several studies report yield benefits from floral visitation, others suggest little or no effect, and few have assessed pollen limitation through direct hand-pollination experiments. Here, we assess pollinator contribution and pollen limitation through two manipulative common garden experiments using different soybean cultivars. First, we assessed the contribution of pollinators by comparing reproductive variables between caged (pollinator excluded) and open-pollinated plants over two growing seasons. Second, we supplemented flowers with cross-pollen to test for pollen limitation, evaluating pollen-tube growth, pod set, seed number per pod, and seed weight. Pollinator exclusion did not significantly reduce total pod or seed production per plant, but open pollination increased seed set (seeds per flower) by ~16%. In contrast, hand supplementation substantially improved reproductive success at the flower level, tripling pod set probability and increasing seed number per pod by 40%. Additionally, both open-pollinated and hand-pollinated flowers exhibited higher pollen-tube growth relative to autonomous selfing. These findings highlight that even in largely self-compatible crops like soybean, additional pollen input can enhance reproductive success and help bridge the gap between the ecological and agronomic dimensions of pollination.