The cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) is octoploid (2n = 8x = 56) and has been the focused fruit species of which an increasing number of molecular and genetic research has been conducted in recent years. The aim of this study is to identify the relationships between sucrose metabolism, invertase enzyme activity and gene expression in four different fruit development periods (red, pink, green and white) of two commercially important strawberry varieties ‘Rubygem’ and ‘Fortuna’. The metabolite profiles (glucose, fructose, sucrose and total sugar content) of two varieties were discovered to be extremely similar. The highest amount of total sugar was found in red fruits, while the lowest was obtained from green fruits. Invertase represents one of the key enzymes in sucrose metabolism. The lowest invertase activity was obtained from the green fruits in ‘Rubygem’ and ‘Fortuna’ during four developmental periods. In these varieties, the amount of sucrose was found to be close to glucose and fructose and the lowest amount was detected in green period, while invertase activity was relatively high during red and pink periods and invertase gene expression was determined at high levels in both primers (St-4 and St-6) in the green period. The results of the study indicated that sugar content and invertase activity were positively correlated while enzyme activity and gene expression were negatively correlated.

In this study, we aimed to develop novel genic simple sequence repeat (eSSR) markers and to study phylogenetic relationship among Pistacia species. Transcriptome sequencing was performed in different tissues of Siirt and Atl cultivars of pistachio (Pistacia vera). A total of 37.5-Gb data were used in the assembly. The number of total contigs and unigenes was calculated as 98,831, and the length of N50 was 1,333 bp after assembly. A total of 14,308 dinucleotide, trinucleotide, tetranucleotide, pentanucleotide, and hexanucleotide SSR motifs (4–17) were detected, and the most abundant SSR repeat types were trinucleotide (29.54%), dinucleotide (24.06%), hexanucleotide (20.67%), pentanucleotide (18.88%), and tetranucleotide (6.85%), respectively. Overall 250 primer pairs were designed randomly and tested in eight Pistacia species for amplification. Of them, 233 were generated polymerase chain reaction products in at least one of the Pistacia species. A total of 55 primer pairs that had amplifications in all tested Pistacia species were used to characterize 11 P. vera cultivars and 78 wild Pistacia genotypes belonging to nine Pistacia species (P. khinjuk, P. eurycarpa, P. atlantica, P. mutica, P. integerrima, P. chinensis, P. terebinthus, P. palaestina, and P. lentiscus). A total of 434 alleles were generated from 55 polymorphic eSSR loci with an average of 7.89 alleles per locus. The mean number of effective allele was 3.40 per locus. Polymorphism information content was 0.61, whereas observed (Ho) and expected heterozygosity (He) values were 0.39 and 0.65, respectively. UPGMA (unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages) and STRUCTURE analysis divided 89 Pistacia genotypes into seven populations. The closest species to P. vera was P. khinjuk. P. eurycarpa was closer P. atlantica than P. khinjuk. P. atlantica–P. mutica and P. terebinthus–P. palaestina pairs of species were not clearly separated from each other, and they were suggested as the same species. The present study demonstrated that eSSR markers can be used in the characterization and phylogenetic analysis of Pistacia species and cultivars, as well as genetic linkage mapping and QTL (quantitative trait locus) analysis.

Genome editing has emerged as a transformative tool to improve crop productivity, resilience, and nutritional quality, helping address global food insecurity. Among gene-editing platforms, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/ Cas systems (notably CRISPR-Cas9) offer simple, efficient, and scalable methods for targeted modifications, including knockouts, base edits, and precise “search-and-replace” prime edits. In plants, recent advances such as improved base editors, optimized prime-editing platforms, and DNA-free delivery methods have expanded the scope of edits achievable while reducing off-target effects and regulatory concerns. This review summarizes CRISPR principles, highlights technical breakthroughs and crop applications that mitigate biotic and abiotic stresses, and outlines practical challenges and future directions necessary for responsible deployment in agriculture.