GOES

Stevia plants produce a mixture of different steviol glycosides with a sweetening power up to 250-300 times higher than that of sugar. Being these natural non-caloric sweeteners, they can substitute sugar and other artificial sweeteners in food and beverages thereby providing considerable health benefits. The global demand for both stevia leaves and purified steviol glycosides to be used in dietary products is steadily increasing and it is expected to increase further in the future. However, Stevia's current agricultural production is insufficient to meet global demand and classic breeding programs are rather slow.

The recent advent of genome editing technologies such as the CRISPR/Cas9 system has enabled the precise modification of single or multiple genes at a time, thereby greatly accelerating the identification of useful traits and the production of improved crops. The development and use of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in Stevia would allow rapidly identifying target genes involved in relevant phenotypes and to evaluate the outcome of combining multiple traits, thereby supporting and accelerating traditional breeding schemes.