Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 13, 2025

Author Spotlight: Soybean Hairy Root Transformation for the Analysis of Gene Function
Published on: May 5, 2023
Molecular Regulation of Shoot Architecture in Soybean
Zhihong Hou1, Huan Huang1, Yanan Wang1
1Guangdong Key Laboratory of Plant Adaptation and Molecular Design, Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Editing, Innovative Center of Molecular Genetics and Evolution, School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China.
None:
Soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) serves as a major source of protein and oil for humans and animals. Shoot architecture, the spatial arrangement of a plant's above-ground organs, strongly affects crop yield and is therefore a critical agronomic trait. Unlike wheat and rice crops that have greatly benefitted from the Green Revolution, soybean yield has not changed significantly in the past six decades owing to its unique shoot architecture. Soybean is a pod-bearing crop with pods adhered to the nodes, and variation in shoot architecture traits, such as plant height, node number, branch number and number of seeds per pod, directly affects the number of pods and seeds per plant, thereby determining yield. In this review, we summarize the relationship between soybean yield and these major components of shoot architecture. We also describe the latest advances in identifying the genes and molecular mechanisms underlying soybean shoot architecture and discuss possible directions and approaches for breeding new soybean varieties with ideal shoot architecture and improved yield.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Cell Signaling in Plants
Morphogenesis
Regulation of Expression at Multiple Steps
Regulation of Expression Occurs at Multiple Steps
Transcription results in the generation of precursor (pre-mRNA) that consists of both exons and introns, which needs further processing before being translated to a...
Meristems and Plant Growth
Primary and Secondary Growth in Roots and Shoots

