Gene editing can speed up plant domestication

The CRISPR technique quickly tamed ‘unruly’ ground cherries

Ground cherries

RIPE FOR DOMESTICATION  Ground cherries make tasty fruit, but aren’t widely grown because some traits make them difficult to farm. Researchers are using gene editing to rapidly tame the berries into potential cash crops. 

Sebastian Soyk

Gene editing can speed up plant domestication, taming wild vines, bushes and grasses and turning them into new crops.