Chinese agricultural scientists have created a soybean variety through gene editing that may be better suited to warm climates such as southern China or countries near the equator.
Research teams from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences used the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to knock out two genes in the soybean plant, the researcher Hou Wensheng to Global Times on July 3rd.
Experiments showed that the mutated soybeans flowered 31 days later and produced significantly more pods and seeds per plant than those planted in the South.
Soybean crops planted in warmer climates had lower yields due to a shorter period of time when they could mature, the Global Times .
The research team believed that the mutant soybean had high yield potential at low latitudes and in the tropics and planned to further modify the plants to be pest resistant and adaptable to environments at lower latitudes.
Soybeans in China were mainly grown in the country's northeast and eastern provinces of Henan and Anhui, the Global Times .
Hou said the research could help the country increase its soybean production, although it cannot immediately reduce the country's dependence on imports due to limited arable land for planting.
China was the world's largest consumer of soybeans, of which more than 80% were imported from countries such as the US and Brazil, the Global Times .
China's State Council said in February that China would step up efforts to expand soybean cultivation, speed up research into breeding high-yield crops and improve soybean production management to rejuvenate the industry.
The country's cultivated area is expected to increase to 9.3 million hectares by 2020, while the soybean self-sufficiency rate will increase by 1% by 2020.
Post: Marina Carvejani
Author: OFI Magazine
Source: OFI Magazine
