Sequencing the "Chocolate" (Cocoa) Genome
In case you didn’t know, chocolate is big business. Do you know of anybody who doesn’t like to .jpg)
snack on a piece of chocolate from time to time? Because of the growing incidence of tropical diseases, pests and global climate change, Mars, the giant candy maker (M&Ms, Snickers), announced that it will sequence and analyze the cocoa genome (cocoa is the key ingredient in chocolate) to “to discover genetic building blocks of traits like disease and pest resistance, drought tolerance and perhaps flavor.” The likely long term goals of the project are to identify ways reduce cultivation costs and increase crop yields.
Another reason why Mars is keen on the project (at least according to the corporate press release) is to protect the livelihood of more than 6.5 million cocoa growers, mostly family-run farms,70% of which are in Africa.
Mars is working with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA, sequencing) and IBM (data analysis) on the project. The results of the research will be free through the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture.
I hope that the cocoa genome project is successful. What would the world be like without a copious supply of chocolate?????
Until next time…
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!
