Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to polynucleotides with a selection marker and a guide RNA module transcriptionally fused such that the selection marker and the genetic editing machinery are expressed concurrently. Accordingly, the selected cells are more likely to be genetically edited, such that the genetic editing efficiency is increased. The present disclosure also provides a method of transforming plant cells, a method of altering a target site in the genome of a plant cell, a method of increasing the fraction of genetically edited cells in a plant embryo following transformation using the polynucleotides.