In planta soybean transformation technologies developed in China: Procedure, confirmation and field performance

Summary Soybean is a recalcitrant species for in vitro manipulation. Chinese scientists developed two in planta non-tissue culture soybean transformation procedures: (1) via the “pollen-tube-pathway” to introduce exogenous genomic total DNA of Glycine gracilis, the seed of which consisted of 50% protein, and (2) “ovarian injection” with exogenous plasmid DNA containing atrazine-resistant gene. A high yield and high seed protein (45.44%) cultivar, ‘Heisheng 101’, resulted from the first method, and atrazine-resistant F₁, F₂, and F₃ plants were obtained from the second method. Both exogenous single-genic Mendelian traits and multi-genic quantitative traits were transferrable with these simple and inexpensive procedures. However, some controversy exists with the acceptance of these novo procedures; mainly because instead of the standard Southern blotting, the RAPD and dot blotting techniques were used in the molecular confirmation of the transgenic status in the reported studies. This mini-review is dedicated to the memory of the late Dr. Guang-chu Yin (1936–1994), former Head of the Soybean Research Institute of Heilongiang, Academy of Agricultural Science, Harbin, China. Dr. Yin led the advancement of soybean biotechnology in China and pioneered the soybean pollen-tube-pathway transformation.