CRISPR/Cas9 for soybean improvement: A review

The soybean is a valuable legume crop cultivated for its oil and protein which is used widely as food for humans and feed for livestock as well as in biofuel production. The genetic improvement of the soybean needs to be accelerated to boost its productivity and enhance its resilience to changing environments. In recent years, CRISPR/Cas9 has become a powerful and robust genome editing system for manipulating traits of various crop plants including soybean. This cutting-edge biotechnological tool has been extensively used as a means for improving crop quality and yields, disease-resistance, tolerance to adverse environmental conditions, and production of plant-based materials. This review presents a brief mechanism of the CRISPR/Cas9 system followed by its application in soybean improvement. It also highlights some prospects of using the CRISPR/Cas9 system in soybean research.