Papaya breeding for fruit quality traits (genomic data of papaya 'RB2' and 'Sunrise Solo')

Papaya has become one of the most important tropical fruits in Australia. An increasing demand for higher quality fruit has led to the development of new cultivars with improved physiological and flavour-related traits. Marker assisted breeding poses great potential to speed up and improve accuracy for selecting seedlings with desirable traits. This research project aimed to identify molecular markers for their selection in advanced breeding selections. To facilitate marker development, gene predictions and functional annotations were integrated using whole genome sequencing and gene expression analysis. The result from this study provided valuable resource for the future of strategic selective breeding of elite Australian papaya cultivars.