18 Aug 2022

Soybean lines with faster recovery from light protection yielded up to 33% more seed in field trials

Biotechnology and synthetic biologyFood and agriculture
AI illustration · Illustrative scene, not a photograph of the specific device or experiment.

What was demonstrated

In replicated field trials, soybean lines carrying three transgenes that speed the relaxation of nonphotochemical quenching showed higher photosynthetic efficiency in fluctuating light. The paper reports seed yield gains of up to 33% across five independent transgenic lines, with seed protein and oil content unchanged.

Why it matters

The paper asks whether faster recovery from light protection, which an earlier tobacco field study linked to gains in photosynthesis and biomass, can raise seed yield in a major food crop. A 2023 Technical Comment disputed the premise, and the authors replied. The result is an early, contested field finding rather than an established crop improvement.

Caveats

  • The yield gain is reported for five independent transgenic lines. The 33% figure is the largest gain in those lines, not an average across the crop or across all lines tested.
  • The trials used transgenic lines, not commercial soybean varieties, so the results do not show a commercial crop gain.
  • A Technical Comment published in Science in February 2023 (Sinclair, Specht, Cassman and colleagues) argued there is little basis for the premise that the transformation would raise yield. The authors replied later in 2023. This record does not summarise the exchange in detail.

Technology profiles

Sources

  1. peer reviewed paper
    Soybean photosynthesis and crop yield are improved by accelerating recovery from photoprotection
    Amanda P. De Souza, Steven J. Burgess, Lynn Doran et al.. Science, 18 Aug 2022. DOI: 10.1126/science.adc9831.
  2. other
    Comment on "Soybean photosynthesis and crop yield are improved by accelerating recovery from photoprotection"
    Thomas Sinclair, James Specht, Kenneth Cassman et al.. Science, 24 Feb 2023. DOI: 10.1126/science.ade8506.
  3. other
    Response to Comments on "Soybean photosynthesis and crop yield is improved by accelerating recovery from photoprotection"
    Amanda P. De Souza, Steven J. Burgess, Lynn Doran et al.. Science, 2023. DOI: 10.1126/science.adf2189.

Last reviewed 22 Oct 2026.