Vol. 9, Special Issue 10, Part M (2025)

Modern vegetable breeding is undergoing a revolutionary transformation through the integration of advanced genome-editing and genomic prediction tools. This article reviews how the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing system and genomic selection strategies are being combined to achieve precision improvements in vegetable crops. We outline historical developments in plant genetics and breeding from Mendel’s foundational pea experiments and the Green Revolution to the rise of genomic technologies setting the stage for these innovations. We then explain how CRISPR/Cas9 enables targeted alterations of specific genes affecting yield, nutrition, and stress resilience, while genomic selection uses genome-wide marker data to predict breeding values for complex traits. The synergistic workflow of combining both methods is detailed, and key examples are presented. Notable advances include CRISPR-edited tomatoes with enhanced size and shelf-life, nutrient-fortified lettuce, disease-resistant peppers, and virus-resistant cucumbers. The fusion of these tools promises greatly accelerated development of superior vegetable cultivars, although challenges in regulation and deployment remain. We conclude that harnessing both gene editing and genomic selection will dramatically improve breeding precision, enabling crops with higher yield, better nutrition and greater resilience.