Generating genomic resources for mango (Mangifera indica L.). Mangifera indica strain:Dashehari

More than 1,000 varieties of mango exist in India today, which contribute 39.5% of the total fruit production in the country. There are 25 major commercial cultivars of mango some of which are highly preferred in the International market. Mango export from India during 2011-12 reached 130,000 tons. It is grown in almost all the states of India, Andhra Pradesh tops in total production, whereas Uttar Pradesh tops in area. Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Gujarat together contribute about 82% of the total mango production in India. Mango is a difficult plant to handle in breeding due long juvenile phase, high heterozygosity, heavy fruit drop and large area required for assessment of hybrids. Furthermore, the genetics of various agronomic and quality traits is not known. The genomic resources in mango are very meager and genetics of useful horticultural traits are poorly understood. North Indian cultivars generally have the problem of alternate bearing, but South Indian cultivars are generally regular bearer. “Neelam” is a high yielding, late season mango variety of south India that has regular bearing, medium fruits size, good flavour, yellow fibreless soft flesh and good keeping quality. “Dashehari” is one of the most popular varieties of north India, a mid-season mango with medium fruit size, pleasant flavour, sweet, firm and fibreless pulp, thin stone and good keeping quality. A cross between Dashehari and Neelam resulted in development of “Amarpali”, a popular dwarf regular bearer variety with small fruit size, good taste and keeping quality. The present research on RNA profiling and sequencing from different tissues of mango varieties “Neelam” and Dashehari would be helpful in generating genomic resources, which will have tremendous implication on designing future mango breeding strategies. The proposed research work will lead to generation of a large Transcriptome database of mango as well development of SSR and SNP markers for breeding appliations.