Abstract: Photosynthesis is a major factor affecting crop yield, and the high light use efficiency breeding strategy has played an important role in soybean yield improvement for decades. With the rapid progress of plant molecular biology and biotechnology in recent years, many significant achievements have been made in the study of the molecular mechanism of photosynthesis and the regulation of the light use efficiency in soybean. This paper characterizes and summarizes the genes related to photosynthesis in soybean, and reviews the research progress on the studies related to the regulation of light use efficiency of soybean. It provides some clues for the high light use efficiency breeding by molecular design in soybean.