Targeted genome editing using CRISPR-Cas9: Applications in fruit quality and stress resilience

CRISPR-Cas9 technology is becoming the most promising new plant breeding technique, allowing the precise editing of genes that are stably inherited across the following generations. This technology has the potential to generate mutated plants that are nontransgenic and not different from those obtained with classical mutagenesis. This opens new exciting avenues for fruit crop improvement, namely fruit traits such as size, color, and nutritional value, and also fruit resilience toward challenging and unpredictable abiotic stress conditions and emerging pathogens. In this chapter, we explore recent studies performed on several fruit crops that highlight the potential of CRISPR-Cas9 in modern fruit production.