Efficient targeted mutagenesis in soybean by TALENs and CRISPR/Cas9.

•Both TALENs and Cas9/sgRNA systems can achieve gene targeting in soybean.•The mutation efficiency of TALENs was slightly higher than the Cas9/sgRNA system using the AtU6-26 promoter but much lower than that of Cas9/sgRNA system using the soybean GmU6-16g-1 promoter in hairy roots when targeting PDS.•Cas9/sgRNA system is more suitable for simultaneous editing of multiple homoeoalleles in hairy roots when targeting PDS.•GmU6-16g-1 is a suitable U6 promoter for the expression of sgRNA in soybean.