Scientist Cheng Dai from Huazhong Agricultural University and colleagues develop a method to screen CRISPR-edited plants using the naked eye. Previously, the team generated gene-edited rapeseed, an important crop used to make canola oil, but were burdened by the laborious and inefficient method of screening edited plants.

In the new study, they inserted a fluorescence tag to the original vector that they used in editing rapeseed. The new vector is tested in different dicot plants, including rapeseed, soybeans, Arabidopsis, and strawberry. High editing frequencies were achieved particularly in strawberry (95%) and soybeans (75%). This method is an efficient tool to readily identify positive transformants in a wide range of dicot species.

For more information, read the article in Frontiers in Plant Science.