Kate Evans

But I think that it's remiss to say that anything is future-proof in terms of Apple.

Right, yes.

Well, not from Washington State.

Oh, really?

People over here have got a whole different sense of humor.

Yeah.

You know, the thing about CRISPR is that what it does is you're dealing with a variety that is already known, already out there.

And you are, as you say, just editing one or two factors, a gene at a time.

One of the challenges with Apple is knowing which genes to edit.

There is a reasonable-sized community of researchers in Apple across the world, and we've made a lot of progress in terms of understanding its genome, for example.

But compared to other crop species like wheat, we are a drop in the ocean in terms of the number of scientists.

So understanding and really recognizing

working out specifically which genes to target.

We're really not quite there yet.

And for me, you know, I am a plant breeder.

My whole passion is to produce new, unique varieties.

And so I always think, well, where would I start if I was just manipulating a current variety for just one thing?

There are so many things that one could improve.

Yeah.

Oh, absolutely.