Breeding mango for quality traits

Abstract

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is one of the most important fruit trees in tropical and subtropical regions. However, the international trade of mangoes is based mainly on a few cultivars that were mostly generated dozens of years ago. Only few research groups focus on mango breeding programs worldwide. Breeding combines the generation of new genetic combinations mainly through sexual reproduction and selection of individual plants with desirable traits. Most breeding programs focus on fruit quality, appearance and taste, on vegetative traits like tree vigor and architecture and on tolerance/resistance to diseases. Until recently, mango was an orphan crop with poor knowledge at the physiological, molecular and genetic levels. The lack of genetic and genomic resources for mango has limited the ability to integrate genetic approaches into mango breeding. The heritability of many of the important quality traits is still not known and still needs to be discovered. The recent development of molecular tools for mango, including transcriptomes, genome sequence drafts, and molecular variation, provides opportunities for enhancing mango breeding, enabling the integration of molecular genetics and genomic approaches into mango breeding. We discuss different aspects of mango breeding and the effects of developing tools for the improvement of mango breeding and selection.