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Fruit crops, including apple, orange, grape, banana, strawberry, watermelon, kiwifruit and tomato, not only provide essential nutrients for human life but also contribute to the major agricultural output and economic growth of many countries and regions in the world. Recent advancements in genome editing provides an unprecedented opportunity for the genetic improvement of these agronomically important fruit crops. Here, we summarize recent reports of applying CRISPR/Cas9 to fruit crops, including efforts to reduce disease susceptibility, change plant architecture or flower morphology, improve fruit quality traits, and increase fruit yield. We discuss challenges facing fruit crops as well as new improvements and platforms that could be used to facilitate genome editing in fruit crops, including dCas9‐base‐editing to introduce desirable alleles and heat treatment to increase editing efficiency. In addition, we highlight what we see as potentially revolutionary development ranging from transgene‐free genome editing to de novo domestication of wild relatives. Without doubt, we now see only the beginning of what will eventually be possible with the use of the CRISPR/Cas9 toolkit. Efforts to communicate with the public and an emphasis on the manipulation of consumer‐friendly traits will be critical to facilitate public acceptance of genetically engineered fruits with this new technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphatidylserine (PS), a quantitatively minor membrane phospholipid, is involved in many biological processes besides its role in membrane structure. One PS synthesis gene, PHOSPHATIDYLSERINE SYNTHASE1 (PSS1), has been discovered to be required for microspore development in Arabidopsis thaliana L. but how PSS1 affects postembryonic development is still largely unknown. Here, we show that PSS1 is also required for inflorescence meristem and organ development in Arabidopsis. Disruption of PSS1 causes severe dwarfism, smaller lateral organs and reduced size of inflorescence meristem. Morphological and molecular studies suggest that both cell division and cell elongation are affected in the pss1-1 mutant. RNA in situ hybridization and promoter GUS analysis show that expression of both WUSCHEL (WUS) and CLAVATA3 (CLV3) depend on PSS1. Moreover, the defect in meristem maintenance is recovered and the expression of WUS and CLV3 are restored in the pss1-1 clv1-1 double mutant. Both SHOOTSTEMLESS (STM) and BREVIPEDICELLUS (BP) are upregulated, and auxin distribution is disrupted in rosette leaves of pss1-1. However, expression of BP, which is also a regulator of internode development, is lost in the pss1-1 inflorescence stem. Our data suggest that PSS1 plays essential roles in inflorescence meristem maintenance through the WUS-CLV pathway, and in leaf and internode development by differentially regulating the class I KNOX genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphatidylserine (PS), a quantitatively minor membrane phospholipid, is involved in many biological processes besides its role in membrane structure. One PS synthesis gene, PHOSPHATIDYLSERINE SYNTHASE1 (PSS1), has been discovered to be required for microspore development in Arabidopsis thaliana L. but how PSS1 affects postembryonic development is still largely unknown. Here, we show that PSS1 is also required for inflorescence meristem and organ development in Arabidopsis. Disruption of PSS1 causes severe dwarfism, smaller lateral organs and reduced size of inflorescence meristem. Morphological and molecular studies suggest that both cell division and cell elongation are affected in the pss1-1 mutant. RNA in situ hybridization and promoter GUS analysis show that expression of both WUSCHEL (WUS) and CLAVATA3 (CLV3) depend on PSS1. Moreover, the defect in meristem maintenance is recovered and the expression of WUS and CLV3 are restored in the pss1-1 clv1-1 double mutant. Both SHOOTSTEMLESS (STM) and BREVIPEDICELLUS (BP) are upregulated, and auxin distribution is disrupted in rosette leaves of pss1-1. However, expression of BP, which is also a regulator of internode development, is lost in the pss1-1 inflorescence stem. Our data suggest that PSS1 plays essential roles in inflorescence meristem maintenance through the WUS-CLV pathway, and in leaf and internode development by differentially regulating the class I KNOX genes., (© 2013 Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences.)