Imagine a world where desirable traits are easily programmable. Farmers can select to grow plant varieties that both surprise and delight even the most sophisticated taste buds. Nutrient content and crop yields are improved to fight hunger and malnutrition in vulnerable populations. Vibrant floral varieties can be grown in your home garden that not only exhibit optimized fragrance profiles, but also emit their lovely aromas in robust and conveniently timed bursts. With modern plant genomics offering unprecedented access to the genetic basis of phenotypes and with gene editing technologies allowing precision modulation, such a far-fetched, sci-fi reality might actually be within foreseeable reach.

Image from iStock/ThomasVogel.

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想象一下一个理想特性容易编程的世界。农民可以选择种植既能使最复杂的味蕾惊喜又令人愉悦的植物品种。营养素含量和作物产量得到改善，以抗击脆弱人群的饥饿和营养不良。充满活力的花卉品种可以在您的家庭花园中种植，不仅展现出最佳的香气特征，而且还以强劲且方便的定时发散散发出可爱的香气。现代植物基因组学为表型的遗传基础提供了空前的途径，而基因编辑技术则允许精确的调节，因此这种遥不可及的科幻现实实际上可能在可预见的范围内。

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