The aqueous extract of C. papaya fruit (100 mg kg(-1) day(-1) for 10 days) was evaluated for its wound healing activity in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats using excision and dead space wound models. Extract-treated animals exhibited 77% reduction in the wound area when compared to controls which was 59%. The extract treated wounds were found to epithelize faster as compared to controls. Th...

X chromosomes have long been thought to conserve the structure and gene content of the ancestral autosome from which the sex chromosomes evolved. We compared the recently evolved papaya sex chromosomes with a homologous autosome of a close relative, the monoecious Vasconcellea monoica, to infer changes since recombination stopped between the papaya sex chromosomes. We sequenced 12 V. monoica ba...

Papaya (Carica papaya L.) plants are polygamous, with female, male, and hermaphroditic flowers. To understand the roles of MADS-box genes in flower development and sex determination, we cloned cDNAs of E-class genes CpMADS1 and CpMADS3 and a TM6 lineage of the B-class gene CpMADS2 from young flower buds of papaya. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and real-time PCR analys...

Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is a climacteric fleshy fruit that undergoes dramatic changes during ripening, most noticeably a severe pulp softening. However, little is known regarding the genetics of the cell wall metabolism in papayas. The present work describes the identification and characterization of genes related to pulp softening. We used gene expression profiling to analyze the correlation...

A wealth of plant species used by humans for different purposes, but mainly as food, originated and domesticated in the Mesoamerican region. Papaya (Carica papaya) is the third most cultivated tropical crop worldwide, and it has been hypothesized that Mesoamerica is the most likely center of its origin and domestication. In support of it, many wild populations of papaya occur throughout Mesoame...

Erwinia mallotivora was isolated from papaya infected with dieback disease showing the typical symptoms of greasy, water-soaked lesions and spots on leaves. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the strain belonged to the genus Erwinia and was united in a monophyletic group with E. mallotivora DSM 4565 (AJ233414). Earlier studies had indicated that the causal agent for th...

An experiment was carried out to investigate the anthelmintic activity of papaya latex (Carica papaya) against natural infection of Ascaris suum in pigs. Sixteen naturally infected pigs were, on the basis of faecal egg counts and body weight, allocated into four groups, each of four pigs. Three groups (groups B, C, and D) were given papaya latex per os at dose levels of 2, 4, and 8 g of papaya ...

Papaya meleira virus (PMeV) is the causal agent of papaya (Carica papaya L.) sticky disease, which has been detected through analysis of its double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) genome from plant latex. In this work we demonstrate that PMeV dsRNA is protected during 25 days when latex is diluted in citrate buffer pH 5.0 (1:1 v/v) and maintained at -20ºC. At the same temperature, some protection was obse...

UNLABELLED The protein-protein interactions between viral and host proteins play an essential role in plant virus infection and host defense. The potyviral nuclear inclusion protein a protease (NIa-Pro) is involved in various steps of viral infection. In this study, the host proteins interacting with papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) NIa-Pro were screened in a Carica papaya L. plant cDNA library usi...

Studies were carried out to natural papain inhibitor from papaya latex. Fresh latex from green fruits of Carica papaya was collected and immediately transported in ice bath to the lab, from which three fractions with inhibitor effect of esterase papain activity were isolated by latex dialysis, Sephadex G-25 gel filtration and ionic exchange chromatography in SP-Sephadex C-25. The isolated fract...