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Don’t like seeds in your tomatoes? You might be pleased to know that seedless ones have been created by gene editing.

This could create a wide range of seedless fruits, but few may ever be seen in the supermarket if regulators decide to treat gene-edited crops in the same way as genetically engineered ones.

Several seedless fruits, from bananas to grapes, are already available, but have mostly come about by luck rather than design. And although there are a few seedless varieties of tomatoes, they’ve taken researchers many years to create.

Now it can be done very quickly, as Keishi Osakabe at Tokushima University in Japan has shown. His team used the CRISPR gene editing technology to make fruits develop even though no seeds had begun to form. “We haven’t tasted them yet, but in theory they should taste the same,” says Osakabe.

There have been a few efforts to create seedless tomatoes using earlier genetic-engineering techniques. These methods take longer time compared with CRISPR.

Some “seedless” fruits just have very small seeds, and still require pollination (授粉). But completely seedless fruits like the edited tomato do not require pollination at all. Such plants could improve food security by reducing our reliance on smaller bee populations, says Saul Cunningham at the Australian National University. Many fruit growers buy bees to pollinate their crops.

There is a deficiency for farmers, however. Seedless plants usually have to be grown from cuttings, which involves more labor than planting seeds.

CRISPR could be used to develop other types of fruit that don’t require pollinator, as well as introduce beneficial mutations (突变), says Osakabe.

But to make it on to the supermarket, gene-edited plants may have to meet the same standards as genetically engineered plants, which would greatly increase costs. Some argue chat since gene editing is used to introduce mutations already found in some of the plants we eat, it should not require such strict regulations.

1.What has been the problem with tomatoes created in the past?

A.Their taste was not very good. B.They still had a few big seeds.

C.Their genes could not be recognized. D.They took quite a long time to create.

2.What did Keishi Osakabe’s team do?

A.They edited tomatoes’ genes.

B.They changed the taste of tomatoes.

C.They made seedless bananas and grapes.

D.They created genetically engineered tomatoes.

3.Why is CRISPR better than previous methods?

A.It will still require pollination.

B.It will remain unaffected without bees.

C.It will reduce people’s reliance on food security.

D.It will make many growers buy bees for pollination.

4.What does the underlined word “deficiency” in Paragraph probably mean?

A.Danger. B.Disadvantage.

C.Benefit. D.Solution.

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