ICAR Research Data Repository for Knowledge Management

Mango (Mangifera indica Linn.), a dicotyledonous fruit of the family Anacardiaceae, is the most important tropical fruit of India, grown commercially in more than 87 countries. It is popularly known as “The King of Fruits”. In spite of being the richest source of quality mango varieties in the world, the fruit economy in India is far from satisfactory. One of the limiting factors is the relative short ripening period and post-harvest life. In addition, extensive textural softening during ripening leads to adverse effects upon storage. Thus, an in-depth understanding of the biochemical and physiological events occurring during ripening is essential to identify the crucial targets contributing to textural softening. Delaying the ripening-associated changes will lead to greater ‘commercial value addition’. The earlier studies on mango fruit softening mainly focused on the post harvest physiology, especially, organic acid metabolism, fruit flavors volatiles, overall composition and gross changes in total pectin during ripening. However, detailed studies on the quantitative and qualitative changes of cell wall polysaccharides and their in vivo hydrolysis by corresponding hydrolases in relation to textural softening have not been carried out. The aim of the present study was to understand the factors contributing to the textural changes in relation to carbohydrate degradation by respective hydrolases during ripening of mango and also, tissue culture and transformation studies on different genotypes of mango. This study was undertaken to pinpoint the new enzyme targets (hitherto not known) responsible for fruit softening, which was studied at both substrate (water soluble and insoluble polysaccharides) as well as enzyme (respective hydrolases) levels. Some new hydrolases other than PG/PME, hitherto unexplored, were observed in mango fruit, which could serve as important targets for carbohydrate dissolution in vivo. Mango fruit, apart from being untouched for studies on textural regulation, is also a tough system for in vitro culturing and genetic transformation. The study also involves a successful attempt towards induction of somatic embryogenesis from nucellar and cotyledonary explants of mango and expression of GUS gene in somatic embryos from different genotypes of mango via Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation.