A Visual Breakthrough: New Marker System Speeds Up Soybean Genome Editing

Seeing the Future of Soybean Breeding

Soybeans are a cornerstone of global agriculture, feeding humans, animals, and industries alike. But improving soybean traits through CRISPR genome editing has long faced a stubborn hurdle: screening and selecting transgenic plants is slow, labor-intensive, and costly.

A new study in the Journal of Integrative Agriculture unveils a simple yet powerful solution — the Visual Soybean Editing System (VSES4) — that makes identifying transgenic plants as easy as spotting a color change.

How the VSES System Works

The VSES platform integrates a red fluorescent protein (DsRed2) cassette into the CRISPR/Cas9 vector. Instead of relying on specialized equipment, edited plants reveal themselves under natural light:

Red seeds, stems, and leaves mark Cas9-transformed plants.
Green tissues identify Cas9-free, genome-edited plants in the next generation.

This allows researchers to visually separate edited from non-edited plants throughout development — from seed to whole plant — with no loss in editing efficiency.

Key Findings

VSES4 stood out: Up to 81.3% of edited seeds were clearly visible to the naked eye.
Editing accuracy preserved: Genome editing efficiency remained on par with conventional systems.
Real-world impact: In edited soybean mutants, researchers observed desirable traits such as delayed flowering and increased yield.

Why It Matters

This innovation addresses one of the biggest bottlenecks in crop biotechnology — the tedious process of molecular screening. With VSES4:

Breeding pipelines can move faster.
Costs and labor are dramatically reduced.
Farmers and consumers benefit sooner from improved, resilient soybean varieties.

Moreover, the concept can extend beyond soybean, potentially accelerating genome editing across multiple crops.

Conclusion

The VSES4 system marks a leap forward in plant biotechnology by turning genome editing into something researchers can literally see with their own eyes. By combining precision CRISPR tools with simple visual cues, scientists are paving the way for faster, smarter, and more accessible crop improvement.

Reference

Yan, T., Qian, X., Pan, H., Han, J., Wang, Q., Liu, C., … & Liu, X. (2025). From seed to whole plant: An innovative visual marker system to enhance selection efficiency in soybean genome editing. Journal of Integrative Agriculture. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jia.2025.06.010