Chapter 19 - Omics of mango: A tropical fruit tree

Abstract

Mango is an important fruit crop with high nutritional value having socioeconomic importance worldwide. Global mango production stands at 55 million tons annually with India being the leading producer contributing almost 50% of world’s production. Inspite of over 1000 varieties being available, an ideal one is still needed for many production areas. During the last 2 decades, only a few cultivars were released due to the long juvenile period and the long period required to evaluate the seedlings; thus, a few have reached farmers. Hence, genomic studies such as molecular markers, transcriptome, and proteome analysis of mango during various stages of flowering and fruiting, and further, metabolite profiling has improved our understanding of the genetic resources available for breeding and for selection of cultivars with best eatable qualities and better shelf life. Molecular markers such as RAPD, ISSR, SSR, CAPS, AFLP, SCoT, and SNPs were used to study the genetic diversity, create genetic linkage maps, markers associated with fruit color, taste, flavor, etc. A few studies on comprehensive, comparative, and differential transcriptome and proteome of mango pulp, peel, and leaf tissues have generated vast data. These studies helped in elucidating the genes and proteins that are involved in early and late flowering, different stages of fruit development, and biotic and abiotic stress conditions. Metabolomic studies in mango provided insights into the metabolites, hormones, and pathways involved in fruit softening and flower induction, which are crucial for post-harvest and biennial flowering management. With the advancement in sequencing technologies, availability of linkage map and whole-genome sequence of mango data has helped us understand the genetics of inheritance in mango. With increase in number of molecular markers and high-density genetic linkage maps, future breeding programs will be more promising and effective. This chapter summarizes the recent advancements in the genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic studies in mango.