Soybean genetic engineering in Brazil and South America - A review

Soybean like other commodities brings important income to producer countries. In Brazil, the picture is not different. Thus, due to its economic significance and considering all field challenges, that impose abiotic and biotic constraints to improve yield, research efforts have focused on solving problems by applying biotechnological tools. In this review, a description of genetic engineering being developed in Brazil for soybean crop is addressed, including research in tolerance to abiotic conditions such as drought; to biotic factors such as insects, nematodes and fungal among other categories; as well as the use of soybean as bio-factories. All commercially available soybean events in Brazil and South American countries, for insect resistance and herbicide tolerance are also discussed. An overview of the Brazilian regulatory framework and South American countries for Biotech products is presented as well as the future perspectives for soybean genetic engineering in Brazil. In addition, a list of papers, from 2008 to the present, showing the state of the art of genetic engineering of soybean and by-products in Brazil is made available. The same search on the literature for South American countries did not return papers published on the genetic engineering of soybean and by-products. Although South American countries did not develop science on GM soybean, a search on GM varieties being sowed indicated that these countries adopted GM technology, due to all the advantages that these lines offer.