Characterization of Insertion Sites in Rainbow Papaya, the First Commercialized Transgenic Fruit Crop Jon Y. Suzuki & Savarni Tripathi & Gustavo A. Fermín & Fuh-Jyh Jan & Shaobin Hou & Jimmy H. Saw & Christine M. Ackerman & Qingyi Yu & Michael C. Schatz & Karen Y. Pitz & Marcela Yépes & Maureen M. M. Fitch & Richard M. Manshardt & Jerry L. Slightom & Stephen A. Ferreira & Steven L. Salzberg & Maqsudul Alam & Ray Ming & Paul H. Moore & Dennis Gonsalves Received: 1 November 2008 / Accepted: 17 November 2008 / Published online: 10 December 2008 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008 Abstract Inserts and insert sites in transgenic, papaya ringspot virus (PRSV)-resistant commercial papaya Rain- bow and SunUp, were characterized as part of a petition to Japan to allow import of fresh fruit of these cultivars from the U.S. and to provide data for a larger study aimed at understanding the global impact of DNA transformation on whole genome structure. The number and types of inserts were determined by Southern analysis using probes spanning the entire transformation plasmid and their sequences determined from corresponding clones or se- Tropical Plant Biol. (2008) 1:293–309 DOI 10.1007/s12042-008-9023-0 J. Y. Suzuki : S. Tripathi : M. M. M. Fitch : P. H. Moore : D. Gonsalves (*) USDA-ARS Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, P.O. Box 4459, 64 Nowelo St., Hilo, HI 96720, USA e-mail: Dennis.Gonsalves@ars.usda.gov G. A. Fermín Centro Jardín Botánico, Universidad de los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela F.-J. Jan Department of Plant Pathology, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan, Republic of China S. Hou : J. H. Saw : M. Alam Advanced Studies in Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA C. M. Ackerman : Q. Yu : R. Ming Hawaii Agricultural Research Center, Aiea, Honolulu, HI 96701, USA M. C. Schatz : S. L. Salzberg Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA S. Tripathi : K. Y. Pitz : S. A. Ferreira Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA M. Yépes Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Geneva, New York 14456, USA R. M. Manshardt Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA J. L. Slightom AureoGen Biosciences, Kalamazoo, MI 49009, USA J. H. Saw : M. Alam Department of Microbiology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA R. Ming Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA HI 96701, USA