Important fruit crops apple and grapevine are subjects for crop improvement
by conferring biotic and abiotic stress tolerance through traditional
breeding and modern biotechnology. As approvals for field testing and
commercialization have been limited in most crops, researcher Yuriko Osakabe
from Tokushima University in Japan and colleagues explore genome editing to
genetically improve apple and grapevine.

In their article in Nature, the group of researchers described two
protocols, namely, plasmid-mediated genome editing and direct delivery of
CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoproteins for genome editing of apple and grapevine.
They transformed CRISP-Cas9 components into protoplasts and verified
mutations produced by the system. Results showed high efficiency and
accuracy of the system in the two fruit crops, taking 2-3 weeks for genetic
transformation of the CRISPR-Cas9 system and more than three months for
plant regeneration and verification of the genome edits.

[www.nature.com]