Researchers to perform sex change operation on papaya

		IMAGE: Researchers will produce true-breeding hermaphrodite papayas, an advance that will boost plant health, reduce growers' costs and their use of fertilizers and water. Click here for more information.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The complicated sex life of the papaya is about to get even more interesting, thanks to a $3.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant will fund basic research on the papaya sex chromosomes and will lead to the development of a papaya that produces only hermaphrodite offspring, an advance that will enhance papaya health while radically cutting papaya growers' production costs and their use of fertilizers and water.