Efforts in Hawaii to develop ringspot-resistant papaya hybrid
The Oahu-based Hawaii Agriculture Research Center has received a federal grant to assist in cross-breeding a hybrid that would be resistant to the disease that ravaged the Big Island papaya industry in the 1990s.
Center Executive Director Stephanie Whalen said the effort involves what she describes as a distant cousin of the papaya that is native to South America.
The mountain papaya. The plant, Vasconcellea pubescens, is also known as the mountain papaya. HARC is working with an Australian researching using a variety of the fruit that has shown resistance to the virus. “We’re trying to move that resistance to papaya,” Whalen said.
But the fruit of V. pubescens is a far cry from Carica papaya, the species that papaya lovers love. While it looks similar to a Hawaiian papaya and can be eaten raw, it is usually cooked as a vegetable..
In fact, V. pubescens is so genetically diverse from C. papaya that when the two are crossed the result tends to be sterile.
Researchers hope to find an offspring of that match that is fertile yet carries the virus-resistance gene. If that happens, then they will cross that with non-genetically-modified Hawaii papayas. If those produce offspring they will be repeatedly “backcrossed” with non-GMO Hawaii papayas, all the while testing the plants for resistance to the disease.
Source: bigislandnow.com
