Sequencing chocolate - June 26, 2008
At Nature we recently got very excited by the platypus genome, and now another important genome sequencing project has been announced.
Not quite so important from a biological science perspective, but important to millions of sweet toothed people and the developing-country farmers who rely on their appetites. The US Agricultural Research Service has announced a new partnership with IBM and Mars (of the bars fame) to sequence the cacao genome in five years.
Mars is putting up the money and IBM is going to use one of its supercomputers to analyse the genome. An end result could be drought and disease resistant cacao trees with higher yields.
“Sequencing the genomes of agriculture crops is a critical step if we want to better understand and improve a crop,” says Judy St. John or the US Department of Agriculture (Reuters).
I was initially worried that Mars might end up owning the genome of chocolate. But according to the NY Times the results will be freely available through the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture.
For those interested in such things, the platypus genome was picked up as a story by about 350 news websites. So far the chocolate genome story has featured on about 170.
Headline watch
Unwrapping the Chocolate Genome – Washington Post
Another genome project? Sweet . . . – The Chronicle Herald
Sweet deal: Companies and U.S. team up to map cocoa DNA – Retuers
Image: Punchstock
Comments
Sequencing chocolate : a good project really. Sequencing of any agricultural crop may have good impacts on promotion of such crop against diseases to improve resistant strains that result in higher yields. On the other hand, may result in understanding of genome dynamics and so become a fertilized area of research to produce genetically engineered plants that may threat the human health on a wide scale. So, the necessity to a systematic implementation of international standards will be required for such research especially if these crops is a part of human own food, and so have a direct effect on his health. Discovering genome sequence will allow scientists to manipulate genes for plant promotion but here many questions will arise, for example if you attend to produce higher yields with exploitation of available sequencing data, you can also manipulate the genes responsible for secondary metabolites that are potent against insect pests. This does not mean that I am fear and worry from availability of genetic data but I am fear from misuse of such data from scientists paying no attention to ethical considerations. Finally, say welcome to Chocolate project and go a head to safety monitoring organizations.
Posted by: Abdallah Samy | June 30, 2008 09:45 AM
Great update and you explained it very well.Thanks.Broadly speaking, the darker the chocolate the richer it will be in the particular flavonoids derived from the beans, which are powerful anti-oxidant agents not commonly found elsewhere.
Posted by: Chocolate For Health | July 3, 2008 05:24 AM