Researchers Use CRISPR for Apple and Grapevine Improvement

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 CRISPR-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.

For more information, read the article in Nature Protocols.