Vegetable soybean ((Glycine max (L.) Merr.), commonly referred to as edamame, holds significant agricultural importance in China as a legume vegetable harvested at the pod-filling stage (R6).  The visual appeal of vegetable soybeans is crucial for consumer preference and marketability, and it depends on factors such as pod length, pod width, and pod color.  This study cultivated 264 vegetable soybeans in Nanjing, Huai’an, and Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China to assess pod traits using PlantPhenoM, a system for pod phenotypic identification and analysis.  The results revealed a variability range of 8.64 to 30.00% in appearance quality traits among the vegetable soybeans.  Leveraging phenotypic data and employing a genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified 525 SNPs significantly linked to the appearance quality traits in different regions.  In addition, five candidate genes (Glyma.04G004700, Glyma.15G051600, Glyma.18G225700, Glyma.18G225900, and Glyma.18G272300) associated with target traits were identified, and KASP markers for S04_372771 (pod length), S18_51477324 (pod width), and S18_55553200 (pod color) were developed.  This study offers valuable insights for breeding superior vegetable soybean varieties and lays the groundwork for exploring candidate genes and molecular markers related to appearance and quality traits in vegetable soybeans.

Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas) systems are effective technologies for rapid and accurate gene function verification in modern plant biotechnology.  However, the investigation of gene silencing and editing in radish remains limited.  In this study, a bleaching phenotype was generated through the knockdown of RsPDS using tobacco rattle virus (TRV)- and turnip yellow mosaic virus (TYMV)-mediated gene silencing vectors.  The TYMV-mediated gene silencing efficiency was higher than the TRV-based VIGS system in radish.  The expression level of RsPDS was significantly inhibited using VIGS in ‘NAU-067’ radish leaves.  The rootless seedlings of ‘NAU-067’ were infected with Agrobacterium rhizogenes using the 2300GN-Ubi-RsPDS-Cas9 vector with two target sequences.  Nine adventitious roots were blue with GUS staining, and four of these adventitious roots were edited at target sequence 1 of the RsPDS gene as indicated by Sanger sequencing.  Furthermore, albino lines were generated with A. tumefaciens-mediated transformation of radish cotyledons.  Five base substitutions and three base deletions occurred at target sequence 2 in Line 1, and three base insertions and three base substitutions occurred at target sequence 1 in Line 2.  This study shows that VIGS and CRISPR/Cas9 techniques can be employed to precisely verify the biological functions of genes in radish, which will facilitate the genetic improvement of vital horticultural traits in radish breeding program