Assembly and annotation of Fragaria vesca‘Yellow Wonder'genome,a model diploid strawberry for molecular genetic research

Fragaria vesca,a wild diploid strawberry,serves as a fundamental research model for cultivated strawberry.The current reference genomes available are limited to two closely-related accessions,Hawaii 4 and CFRA2339.The widely-used model accession‘Yellow Wonder'does not yet have its reference genome.In this study,the genome of a 7^(th) generation inbred'Yellow Wonder'was assembled using a combination of Oxford Nanopore long reads and Illumina short reads.The de novo chromosome-scale assembly of this 220 megabase genome possesses 34,007 genes which were annotated through lift over from the Hawaii 4 genome annotation.Genome comparisons show that the‘Yellow Wonder'genome is relatively distinct from the two previously published F.vesca accessions,Hawaii 4 and CFRA2339.The availability of a‘Yellow Wonder'reference genome adds another important genomic resource to Fragaria vesca and enables rapid research progress in strawberry.

Plant genetics enters the nano age?

Plant transformation has for many years relied on agrobacterium infection or biolistic particle delivery. However, these two methods are limited to model plant systems or a small number of crop species. This commentary highlights recent developments in the nanoparticle-mediated transformation that havethe potential to revolutionize how plants are trans- formed.

Application and future perspective of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in fruit crops

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 d Cas9-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 consumerfriendly traits will be critical to facilitate public acceptance of genetically engineered fruits with this new technology.