Descriptors for
     papaya
  
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The common papaya, Carica papaya, is the fourth most important tropical fruit in economic terms. Other species are cultivated in the Andes. In addition to the fruit, papayas produce papain, a proteolytic enzyme used in medicine and industry. Papaya production has also great social importance because of its short cultivation cycle, continuous production, adaptation to small plots and continuous labour requirements. Papaya ringspot virus and bacterial canker are extremely severe diseases of papaya and are the main limitation to the expansion of the crop. None of the local cultivars are resistant to or tolerant of these diseases. Despite papaya being native to the Americas, there is little breeding work on the crop in the region and commercial production depends on seeds imported from Asia.

To meet the specific requirements of the Latin-American growers, particularly for fruit quality and disease resistance, a regional project funded by FONTAGRO and coordinated by IPGRI was started, in collaboration with FONAIAP, Universidad Central de Venezuela and the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas in Venezuela, the Corporación Colombiana para la Investigación en Agricultura CORPOICA, Universidad Nacional-Medellín and Universidad de Caldas in Colombia, INIAP and Universidad Técnica de Ambato in Ecuador, the Universidad de Costa Rica, and CIRAD-FLHOR in Guadeloupe. The project aims to study the diversity of the papaya plant and its main pathogens.

The genetic diversity of 86 plants from 35 accessions of Caribbean papaya germplasm was analyzed at Universidad de Caldas in Colombia, taking into account the particular influence of sex on important morphological traits and the irregular occurrence of hermaphrodites in the different accessions. Results from this work have been used to develop a descriptor list and a standard design for diversity analysis of common papaya and its relatives, the mountain papayas (Vasconcella spp.).