CRISPR pitless cherries are on the horizon

Seedless fruit is easy to take for granted, until you find yourself eating grapes with crunchy bits and watermelons that leave you spitting with every bite. Pits, it turns out, are even harder to get rid of. Two companies are partnering to do just that.

Sun World, the California-based company that helped pioneer seedless fruit, and ag-tech startup Pairwise will work on creating a pitless cherry to bring to the market in the next decade …. The two will use Pairwise’s gene-editing technology that can tweak a plant’s DNA directly without injecting foreign genes.

Gene editing is a key innovation to help crops and livestock better withstand extreme weather, pests and diseases …. But it can also improve consumer convenience, and in the case of fruit, increase how much healthier food we eat.

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A cherry with no pit, combined with a longer growing season for year-round fruits at the grocery store, would be a “huge win for everyone up and down the supply chain,” said David Marguleas, the executive chair of Sun World ….

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