Seedless, thornless blackberry by Pairwise

Milestones

Next · Pre-commercial grower field trials

Seedless blackberry unveiledJun 2024Complete.
USDA plant-pest review cleared2025Complete.
Pre-commercial grower field trialsTarget 2026Current milestone.
Retail availabilityTarget 2030Not yet reached.

Most important updates

2025
2025
17 Sep 2024
4 Jun 2024
15 Apr 2020

Upcoming

2026Pre-commercial grower field trials (next)
2030Retail availability

Current obstacles

Yield and fruit quality in the fieldSeedless fruit can be smaller or less productive; years of trials must show it yields enough to sell.
Slow trialsBerry bushes take years to establish, so field testing is slow.

Physics limits

Seeds make the hormones that make fruit growDeveloping seeds release growth hormones that swell the fruit around them. Removing hard seeds can shrink berries or reduce set, so seedless traits must be paired with ways to keep fruit size up.
Berry plants take years per generationA blackberry cane typically fruits in its second year, so each test cycle in the field takes years. Editing is fast, but proving yield and taste across seasons and sites is not.
Several gene copies may all need editingMany cultivated blackberries carry four or more copies of each chromosome. A trait only shows if enough copies are changed, which makes multi-copy edits harder to get and to confirm.

How it works

3 parts

Plantlets growing in sterile jars in a tissue-culture lab: gene-edited plant cells are regrown into whole plants this way, not Pairwise's labPhoto: Daderot · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens commons.wikimedia.org)

Target

Find the seed and thorn genes

Scientists find genes that stop seeds or thorns when switched off in related plants, then find the blackberry's version.

Edit

Precise changes in top plants

Editing tools go into plant cells; edited cells regrow into whole plants, and the tools are then bred out.

Propagate

Copying by cuttings

Blackberries grow from cuttings, so one good edited plant can be multiplied without more breeding.

Spec sheet

Spec	Seedless, thornless blackberry
Target traits	Seedless, thornless, compact^R (reported)
Foreign DNA in final plant	None^R (reported)

^R reported by the company

Papers & demos

1 item

Jun 2024demo
Seedless blackberry (opens pairwise.com)First seedless blackberry, made by editing one gene pathway in a top variety.

Update log

5 updates

2025

Minor: BlogCommercial
Minor: BlogTest

Tue 17 Sep 2024

Major: BlogFunding

Tue 4 Jun 2024

Major: PressResearch

Wed 15 Apr 2020

Minor: BlogPartnership

About Pairwise

The team behind Seedless, thornless blackberry

Pairwise

CRISPR crops, seedless blackberry, Fulcrum platform

Gene-editing company in Durham, North Carolina, co-founded by CRISPR pioneers. It sold the first CRISPR-edited food in the US in 2023, is developing fruit like a seedless blackberry and pitless cherries, and licenses its Fulcrum tools to Bayer and others.

Its milder mustard greens launched in 2023; it stopped marketing them in 2024 to focus on licensing and higher-value crops.
Unveiled the first seedless blackberry in June 2024; it cleared USDA review and heads to grower trials.
Builds its own editing tools, including base editors, so it doesn't depend on standard CRISPR licences.

pairwise.com (opens pairwise.com)Company profile →

Founded: 20179 yrs
Headquarters: United States
Status: Private
Valuation: private
Raised: $90M1 round
Last round: Series B · $90MJan 2021
Works in: AgricultureGene-edited cropsBiotech
Coverage: 2 programs · 9 updateslatest 19 Sep 2025checked 25 Sep
Lead investors: Deerfield Management
Partners: Bayer (opens bayer.com)Corteva (opens corteva.com)
Investors: Deerfield Management (opens deerfield.com)
People: Tom Adams (opens pairwise.com)Co-founder & CEOHaven BakerCo-founder