By June, the cloned cocoa plants will be planted in a Union Vale Estate field together with plants grown from grafts and from seed. Over the next three to five years, researchers will measure growth rates, pod production and chocolate-making quality. A tree grown from a single cell is genetically identical to the parent tree, so breeders can choose plants that are best adapted to a particular geographic area or are resistant to certain diseases. Guiltinan says the cocoa tree cloning project on Saint Lucia will take years to implement on a large scale because the plants take four to five years to mature enough for scientists to gauge yield, production and disease resistance. The economic implications of the research are significant.
Most cocoa is grown on small farms in Brazil, Ghana, Indonesia, the Ivory Coast and Malaysia.
If breeding programs can produce plants particularly well-suited for different growing areas, farmers' incomes will increase. Pennsylvania is the country's top chocolate-producing state. Guiltinan's team also is starting a genetic engineering research program to breed plants resistant to disease and pests. That's billions of dollars lost to the economies of cocoa-producing countries. Research shows the most severe cases of sleep apnea occur in people under age 45 and should be treated more aggressively to reduce problems including hypertension.