Chinese scientists develop gene-edited soybean that can grow in warmer climates
- Team has created mutants that ‘may have enormous yield potential for the tropics’, in effort to increase production in country’s south
- China imports nearly 90 per cent of its soybeans, which have become a battleground in the trade war with Washington
Chinese agricultural scientists are using gene-editing tools to create soybean mutants that can adapt to warmer climates in low-altitude regions, in a bid to increase production of the crop in southern China.
Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences have knocked out two key genes that regulate soybean flowering to create mutants that “may have enormous yield potential for the tropics”, according to a research paper published in Plant Biotechnology Journal in late June.
The new technology will “contribute to soybean breeding and regional adaptability” in the country’s south, where soybean crops often face problems including premature flowering, a shortened growth period and reduced production.
Hou Wensheng, a member of the research team at the academy’s Institute of Crop Science, said the three-year project aimed to improve conditions for nurturing, planting and producing soybeans in regions near the equator, including southern China.
In China, soybeans are mainly grown in the northeastern, central and eastern provinces.
