PROSPECTS FOR APPLYING CRISPR/Cas9 GENE EDITING AND ITS NEW-GENERATION TOOLS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOMATO HYBRIDS FOR GREENHOUSE CULTIVATION

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most important vegetable crops grown under greenhouse conditions worldwide. Achieving high and stable yields in a controlled environment requires hybrids that combine compact plant growth, pollination-independent fruit set (parthenocarpy), multiple disease resistance, long fruit shelf life and high nutritional quality. Combining such traits in a single cultivar by conventional breeding is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Over the past decade, CRISPR/Cas9 technology and its new-generation tools — base editing, prime editing, transcriptional regulation (CRISPRa/CRISPRi), and the Cas12a and Cas13 systems — have made targeted and precise modification of the tomato genome possible. This review analyzes the molecular basis of CRISPR technologies, the stages of their development, and their application to traits of strategic importance for greenhouse tomato production. Rapid domestication of wild species (de novo domestication), the role of genome editing in hybrid seed production, regulatory and biosafety issues, and the limitations of the technology are also discussed.