ARS | Publication request: Cloning Of Organ-Specific Genes from Papaya Using cDNA-AFLP

Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: October 13, 2006
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: Papaya is a fast growing and productive fruit crop in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. Papaya industry has benefited from application of molecular biology and biotechnology for crop improvement, particularly for viral disease resistance using transgenic varieties. The goal of this research is to use amplified fragment length polymorphism (cDNA-AFLP) to systematically identify papaya (Carica papaya L.) genes having organ-specific patterns of expression. We synthesized cDNAs from 15 organs/developmental stages using a double-strand cDNA amplification system (Clontech). More than 800 organ-specific cDNA-AFLP bands were produced from 264 AFLP primer pairs. Approximately 150 bands were isolated from the AFLP gels. Cloning and sequencing of these cDNA fragments are underway. The expression patterns will be verified using quantitative RT-PCR. We will utilize the papaya genome sequences produced by the Hawaii Papaya Genome Consortium to obtain the flanking regions of these cDNA fragments for identifying potential organ-specific promoters.