DOI: 10.1038/nbt.4273
Crop improvement by inbreeding often results in fitness penalties and loss of genetic diversity. We introduced desirable traits into four stress-tolerant wild-tomato accessions by using multiplex CRISPR-Cas9 editing of coding sequences, cis-regulatory regions or upstream open reading frames of genes associated with morphology, flower and fruit production, and ascorbic acid synthesis. Cas9-free progeny of edited plants had domesticated phenotypes yet retained parental disease resistance and salt tolerance.