Application of gene editing technologies in Rubus to introduce beneficial consumer and agronomic traits

Pairwise is a health-focused food and technology company that transforms what we eat. Powered by our best-in-class technology, Pairwise is creating a new consumer-centric category of novel, nutritious foods under our Conscious Foods brand. For more information, visit www.pairwise.com or www.consciousfoods.net. We partnered with Plant Sciences, Inc., to create a platform to transform and edit tetraploid blackberry (Rubus subgenus Rubus). Research to date focused on building a robust transformation system, improving the performance of editing tools in Rubus, and characterizing first edited events that focus on editing to introduce or improve traits related to agronomic performance and eating quality. We created a transformation and tissue culture process that regenerates rooted, transgenic plantlets approximately 15 weeks after experiment initiation. A first trait target we pursued in our transformation pipeline is a key controller of flowering transition. Plants with edits in this target display changes in architecture and agronomic performance in controlled environment testing.