Pairwise is agriculture's plant CRISPR powerhouse

Sun World International and Pairwise today announced the formation of a joint venture to collaborate in specialty fruit, beginning with the development of a pitless cherry.  Sun World will have exclusive commercial rights to these genetics as they seek a first-to-market position in high-quality pitless cherries. The partnership leverages Sun World’s fruit breeding and licensing expertise with Pairwise’s Fulcrum® platform. As part of the agreement, Sun World will make strategic investments to fund development.

In addition to maximizing yield and mitigating against climate change, one of Sun World’s north stars is providing a demonstrably superior consumer eating experience in every way including optimizing convenience. Sun World has a rich heritage of pioneering convenience-focused innovations, beginning with the SUPERIOR SEEDLESS® table grape in 1972, the Sun World seedless watermelon in 1988, countless contributions to their seedless table grape range over three decades, the commercialization of seedlessness in easy-peel mandarins, and the introduction of the seedless lemon.

“Our focus has long been on offering truly differentiated genetics to our growers with exceptional new traits, flavors, texture and convenience,” said Bernardo Calvo, Sun World’s CEO. “Developing a high-quality pitless cherry is a natural innovation evolution for us and in Pairwise, we’ve found an extraordinary partner already well down this quite complex path.”

Pairwise, which has developed the world's first seedless blackberry, brings an unmatched platform that accelerates the development of in-demand crop traits. Traditional breeding involves a lengthy process, but this approach creates a faster path to fruits that consumers will enjoy while providing growers with crops that offer greater sustainability, improved disease resistance, and higher yields.

"This is a segment of agriculture where there's tremendous opportunity to bring meaningful innovation," said Dr. Tom Adams, CEO of Pairwise. "Sun World has built one of the most successful commercial pipelines in fruit genetics.  Combining that expertise with the precision and efficiency of Pairwise’s Fulcrum platform allows us to address unmet consumer and grower needs in a way that hasn't been possible before."

Pairwise will lead the R&D effort, while Sun World contributes its germplasm, breeding infrastructure, and commercial market access. The joint venture is already advancing development work and may explore additional strategic partnerships. In addition to its focus on consumer traits, the collaboration aligns with broader industry efforts to use advanced plant breeding to support sustainable agriculture, reduce waste, and create higher-value outcomes for both consumers and producers.

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About Sun World  

Sun World International is a global fruit variety development and licensing company, propelled by emerging technologies, and rooted since its inception in the principles of sustainability. Sun World pioneered seedless grape varietal development and formalized their fruit genetics program three decades ago. Sun World specializes in table grapes, mandarins, mangoes, stone fruit and cherries and is part of the Bridgepoint Group of private equity investors. www.sun-world.com.  

About Pairwise

Pairwise is agriculture’s gene editing powerhouse, building a healthier world through partnership and plant innovation. Co-founded by the inventors of CRISPR, our Fulcrum® Platform accelerates the development of climate-resilient, nutritious, and sustainable crops. As trusted partners to global industry leaders and nonprofit institutions, we help breeders move faster while transforming food and agriculture for farmers, consumers, and the planet. Founded in 2017 and based in Durham, NC, Pairwise is committed to delivering innovation that makes food easier to grow and better to eat. For more information, visit www.pairwise.com.

Mars, Incorporated has licensed Pairwise's Fulcrum® gene editing tools for cacao research and development. This licensing agreement grants Mars access to Pairwise's CRISPR tools, including the SHARC™ enzyme. The Pairwise Fulcrum™ platform encompasses gene editing tools, enzymes and trait libraries, enabling precise changes that unlock the plant’s inherent potential. This capability significantly accelerates the development of impactful crop traits compared to traditional breeding methods, allowing for the activation or deactivation of characteristics and fine-tuning traits, much like adjusting a dimmer switch to achieve optimal results.  

Mars aims to develop this advanced plant breeding technology to improve cacao production and effectively tackle agricultural challenges. The ultimate goal is to help address the pressures cacao faces globally from climate variability, plant diseases and environmental stresses. This strategic initiative underscores the potential of this technology to drive meaningful advancements in agriculture.  

"At Mars, we believe CRISPR has the potential to improve crops in ways that support and strengthen global supply chains," said Carl Jones, Plant Sciences Director at Mars. "Our focus is to transparently and responsibly conduct CRISPR research in plant science that helps crops better adapt to climate challenges, disease pressures and resource constraints."  

"We're pleased to provide Mars with access to our Fulcrum™ platform for their cacao research and development initiatives," said Ian Miller, Chief Operating Officer at Pairwise. "Plant breeding innovation has the potential to help address important agricultural challenges, and we look forward to supporting Mars' research goals."  

The Pairwise Fulcrum® platform includes gene editing tools, enzymes and trait libraries, enabling precise changes that unlock the plant’s inherent potential to greatly accelerate the development of impactful crop traits compared to traditional breeding methods.
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About Pairwise  

Pairwise is agriculture’s gene editing powerhouse, building a healthier world through partnership and plant innovation. Co-founded by the inventors of CRISPR, our Fulcrum™ Platform accelerates the development of climate-resilient, nutritious, and sustainable crops. As trusted partners to global industry leaders and nonprofit institutions, we help breeders move faster while transforming food and agriculture for farmers, consumers, and the planet. Founded in 2017 and based in Durham, NC, Pairwise is committed to delivering innovation that makes food easier to grow and better to eat. For more information, visit www.pairwise.com.

Pairwise, a company pioneering genetics-based innovation in food and agriculture, has developed the world’s first seedless blackberry. Created using the company’s proprietary Fulcrum™ Platform, a complete suite of novel tools for CRISPR application in plants, this is the first time seedlessness has been achieved in any caneberry.

“We are thrilled to share this breakthrough achievement from our talented R&D team. Pairwise scientists have used their deep knowledge of plant genetics, broad suite of CRISPR tools, and multiplex editing techniques to eliminate the hard pits in berry fruit, creating soft, small seeds like those found in grapes and watermelon that are commonly labeled as seedless,” said Ryan Bartlett, Pairwise Chief Technology Officer. “The result is the first seedless blackberry in the world. We expect that this trait will not only transform the blackberry market, but it also lays the groundwork for accelerated progress in removing seeds and pits in many other fruits such as cherries.”

Recent innovations in produce have been rapidly adopted due to the significant benefits they provide consumers, such as improved flavor, consistency, and convenience.  

“The berry variety we edited is consistently sweet year-round and holds up well during shipment; now, consumers will have the option to choose a nutritious blackberry without seeds that also reliably delivers great flavor and quality,” said Haven Baker, Pairwise Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer. “Blackberries are a snackable fruit with significant health benefits; however, data indicates that more than 30% of berry buyers do not like the seeds, and many more do not even buy the fruit because of the seeds.”

In addition to creating the first seedless caneberry, Pairwise has successfully edited the same variety to eliminate thorns and create a more compact plant that delivers benefits for harvesters, growers, and the environment. The thornless and compact traits enable more efficient fruit harvesting and improved productivity and profitability for growers. The new compact trait means the plants are smaller and can be planted at a higher density per acre.

With the precision of CRISPR, we’re able to develop these thornless and compact traits without sacrificing consistency in flavor and quality for consumers,” said Baker. “We’re excited to advance these berries into the next phase of product development, including outdoor field trials, as we work toward scaling up and making them available to the public in a few years.”

“A key challenge in our food system is helping people eat more high-quality, healthy foods. As part of our drive to increase the consumption of fruit and vegetables, we’re working to provide consumers with new, highly nutritious food options with improved flavor and convenience,” said Tom Adams, Pairwise Co-Founder and CEO. “With a deep understanding of the plant genome, an accurate, efficient, and scalable process, and streamlined pathway to commercialization, we are not only creating new products with our proprietary CRISPR technology, we are creating a new era of innovation in agriculture.”

Learn more about Pairwise and its proven Fulcrum Platform here.

About Pairwise:

Pairwise is pioneering the application of CRISPR technology in food and agriculture. The company brings together leaders in agriculture, technology, and consumer foods to harness the transformative potential of new genomics technologies to create innovative new products. Pairwise is working to develop new varieties of crops, and to partner with organizations that seek to deliver innovation across the plant-based economy. Backed by industry leading investors Deerfield, Aliment Capital, Leaps by Bayer, and Temasek, Pairwise raised $90 million in a successful series B funding round in February 2021, bringing total fundraising to $115 million. The company was founded by Chief Executive Officer Tom Adams and Chief Business Officer Haven Baker, with scientific co-founders J. Keith Joung, Lead Translator at Arena BioWorks; David Liu, Director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, and Vice-Chair of the Faculty at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; and Feng Zhang, McGovern Investigator and a professor at MIT. For more information, visit Pairwise.com, and learn more about the differentiating Pairwise Fulcrum™ Platform here.