Development of new superior strawberry varieties with economically important traits is critical to the Florida strawberry industry. UF/IFAS strawberry cultivars are bred through conventional methods, which while effective, is resource intensive and inherently slow due to strawberry?s complicated genetics. Over the years many advanced selections have been identified that appeared perfect in all regards, except for one critical problem. It is almost impossible to take that near-perfect selection and reshuffle the genetics and correct that central defect.
However, new advances in gene editing provide a means to correct that single deficiency, if the gene that causes it is known. This is not GMO technology, and all indications suggest that gene editing will not be over-regulated, as the final product matches what may be done by conventional breeding, only faster. This technology stands to revolutionize plant and animal breeding. Formally this approach is known as CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology, and it has quickly become the center of attention for crop improvement. This technology has been extensively applied in many economically important agronomic crops, and is poised to make tremendous contributions to strawberry.
This technology allows for the adjustment or removal of specific genes in already established cultivars or breeding parents. For example, instead of breeding for many years and countless acres to move a resistance gene from wild strawberry into elite germplasm, gene-editing allows direct correction of the deleterious genetic sequence in already-elite breeding selections.