Transgenic gamete cleaning system enabled high-throughput screening for non-transgenic gene-edited plants

The breakthrough progress in gene editing technology has established a brand-new paradigm for gene function analysis and crop genetic improvement, and has already become the core driving force in modern agricultural biotechnology. However, traditional methods for screening edited individual plants without T-DNA insertion in their offspring are time-consuming and labor-intensive. To accelerate the identification of T-DNA-free edited plants, researchers have continuously explored various strategies to improve screening efficiency, achieving some success. Despite this progress, these strategies also exhibit varying degrees of limitations. Recently, research teams led by Cheng and Sun (2025) and Zhu et al. (2025) constructed gamete elimination systems, successfully achieving a 100% non-transgenic status in the mutant plants. This innovative approach has transformed traditional molecular testing from a "laboratory-dependent" model to "field-based real-time decision-making" providing an efficient and cost-effective solution for precision breeding.