Analysis of Meiosis in Nonmodel Tropical Plants: The Case of Carica papaya Linn

Abstract

To develop plants that are more tolerant to drought, marginal soil fertility, and diseases and that satisfy demands for high yield, new cultivars of the tropical fruit papaya (Carica papaya L.) are needed. Nonetheless,in many cases, these traits are available in only wild relatives found throughout Latin America. Understanding meiotic progression may facilitate the introgression of desirable traits into commercial cultivars that maintain high fertility. In this protocol, we describe a practical and simple method to effectively isolate male meiocytes in order to document the behavior of papaya meiotic chromosomes.