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.

中文翻译：

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CRISPR / Cas9基因组编辑技术在果农中的应用及未来展望

苹果，橙子，葡萄，香蕉，草莓，西瓜，奇异果和番茄等水果作物不仅为人类提供了重要的营养，而且为世界许多国家和地区的主要农业产出和经济增长做出了贡献。基因组编辑的最新进展为这些农业上重要的水果作物的遗传改良提供了前所未有的机会。在这里，我们总结了将CRISPR / Cas9应用于水果作物的最新报道，包括减少疾病易感性，改变植物结构或花朵形态，改善果实品质性状和提高果实产量的努力。我们将讨论果农面临的挑战，以及可用于促进果农基因组编辑的新改进和平台，包括基于dCas9的编辑以引入所需的等位基因和热处理，以提高编辑效率。此外，我们重点介绍了从无转基因的基因组编辑到从头开始驯养野生亲戚。毫无疑问，我们现在仅看到使用CRISPR / Cas9工具包最终可能实现的开始。与公众沟通的努力以及对消费者友好性状的重视对于利用这种新技术促进公众接受转基因水果至关重要。