This multistate collaborative project strives to address the challenges posted by the weeds in North Central soybean fields, which are becoming increasing hard to control, primarily due to the spreading of weeds resistant to herbicides currently usable on soybean. The rationales for this project are two-folds: (i) By equipping soybean with new tolerance traits against herbicides not currently used on soybean, use of more herbicides with diverse action modes on soybean will be made possible. Furthermore, 2 or more herbicides could also then be combined to delay the emergence of resistant weeds. (ii) CRISPR-based gene editing, especially base editing, allows the creation of new herbicide tolerance traits by introducing precise changes into a select set of soybean genes. Unlike older herbicide tolerance traits, such as Round-up tolerance and Dicamba tolerance, this new technology does not introduce non-plant genes, thus could lessen the regulative burden associated with GMO. Our specific objective for this project is to use the new CRISPR editing technology to modify three soybean genes – ALS, PDS, and HPPD. This would enable soybean to tolerate the corresponding herbicides that target them – e.g. Imazapyr, fluridone, and mesotrione. All three would be new traits in soybean. And these three classes of herbicide are considered relatively safe. Upon successful completion of this project, we expect to deliver soybean farmers with more choices of herbicides that can be use alone, in combination, or in alternation, helping them gaining the upper hand against the weeds in the soybean fields, and achieving higher soybean productivity in a sustainable manner.