Chocolate Genome For Better Tasting Chocolates
June 14, 2013
Weekends are always fun for me. I always like to keep it fun and filled with activities I can't do during weekdays. However, when things don't go my way and they don't go as planned for my weekend, I get devastated. Do I sound bratty if I say I get upset when my weekend plans don’t pull through? A little bit?
Times like this, the idea of some chocolate going into my mouth is not so bad. Nice to hear about the open access journal Genome Biology backing me up. They have launched a fully sequenced genome for the cacao plant which could supposedly yield even better tasting chocolates.
Juan C Motamayor from Mars Incorporated has worked alongside his colleagues in the field of chocolate breeding. Yup, sounds too awesome until you realize you have to study a whole lot of genetics stuff and you’re not in it for the chocolate eating. They have been aiming to sequence the genome of the most popular variety of Theobroma cacao L., namely the green podded Costa Rican Matina.
They believe that through highlighting the gene that has something to do with color variation, they might come up with a way cross-modify the Matina, which has a very high yield, with another variety, one that is better tasting but that has a lower yield.
Traditional cross breeding had gone through several experiments over the years. In Ecuador, a high yielding plant with red pods was mixed with a better tasting plant with green pods. However, this only lessened the overall quality of the chocolate.
Experimentation refers to the act of getting things wrong a couple of times, truth be told. The genetic markers could probably be used to screen young seedlings and choose the best plants even before they reach a mature stage.
Can you imagine? EVEN. BETTER. TASTING. CHOCOLATES. Hah! My weekends will never be sad ever again.
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