Genetic Diversity and Improvement in Mango Cultivars

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is one of the world’s most widely cultivated tropical fruit trees, with immense economic, nutritional and cultural significance. Genetic diversity within and among mango cultivars underpins breeding efforts to enhance disease resistance, fruit quality, yield stability and adaptation to changing climates. Traditional selection has given rise to hundreds of local varieties, yet modern breeding increasingly relies on characterised germplasm collections, molecular markers and advanced genomic tools. Single nucleotide polymorphisms and simple sequence repeats facilitate the assessment of population structure, enabling the identification of genetically distant parents for hybridisation. High‐density linkage maps and quantitative trait locus discovery accelerate marker‐assisted selection for key traits such as fruit colour, firmness and shelf life. Emerging approaches in genomic selection promise further gains by predicting the performance of seedlings at an early stage, thereby reducing the breeding cycle. Concerted efforts to develop open‐access genomic resources, coupled with conservation of wild Mangifera species, ensure sustainable improvement and equitable benefit sharing across major production regions including South Asia, East Africa and Latin America.

Research from Nature Portfolio

A study of the Australian mango gene pool has revealed four distinct genetic clusters among cultivated accessions, one of which comprises primarily Southeast Asian imports. Strong associations were found between genetic structure and key phenotypes—trunk circumference and fruit blush—highlighting the risk of biased marker–trait associations and emphasising the need to account for population structure in genomic selection models. In another investigation, deep sequencing of the rare Mangifera casturi produced a draft assembly alongside 14 polymorphic microsatellite markers. Combined with DNA barcoding, this work traced multiple wild and cultivated ancestors, elucidating complex hybrid origins and offering novel resources for breeding and conservation. Earlier foundational efforts delivered a comprehensive web‐based SNP database built from thousands of ddRAD sequencing reads across global varieties. This platform now supports high‐density linkage mapping, varietal differentiation and marker discovery essential for genome‐wide association studies and future genomic selection programmes.

Genetic Diversity and Improvement in Mango Cultivars publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in genetic diversity and improvement in mango cultivars across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Germplasm: The living genetic resources, such as seeds or tissues, maintained for breeding and conservation.

Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP): A genetic marker based on variation at a single base pair in DNA, useful for high‐resolution genotyping.

Simple sequence repeat (SSR): A molecular marker consisting of tandemly repeated short DNA motifs, also known as microsatellites, used for diversity analysis.

Quantitative trait locus (QTL): A genomic region associated with variation in a measurable trait, identified through linkage or association mapping.

Genomic selection: A breeding approach that uses genome‐wide marker data to predict the performance of individuals before phenotyping.

References

1. The influence of genetic structure on phenotypic diversity in the Australian mango (Mangifera indica) gene pool. Scientific Reports (2022).
2. The genetic variation and relationship among the natural hybrids of Mangifera casturi Kosterm. Scientific Reports (2021).
3. MiSNPDb: a web-based genomic resources of tropical ecology fruit mango (Mangifera indica L.) for phylogeography and varietal differentiation. Scientific Reports (2017).
4. High resolution mapping of QTLs for fruit color and firmness in Amrapali/Sensation mango hybrids. Frontiers in Plant Science (2023).
5. Estimation of genetic diversity and relatedness in a mango germplasm collection using SNP markers and a simplified visual analysis method. Scientia Horticulturae (2019).
6. Phenotypic and Molecular Characterization of Mango Cultivars in Southwest Nigeria. International Journal of Fruit Science (2022).