As Halloween revelers prepare to feast on chocolate, a new study from an international team of researchers, including the University of British Columbia, is pushing back the origins of the delicious sweet treat.
Archaeology
Oct 29, 2018
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243
A rapidly spreading virus threatens the health of the cacao tree and the dried seeds from which chocolate is made, jeopardizing the global supply of the world's most popular treat.
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 23, 2024
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174
The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), whose beans (cocoa) are used to make products including chocolate, liquor and cocoa butter, may have spread from the Amazon basin to the other regions of South and Central America at least ...
Archaeology
Mar 7, 2024
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72
The finding of relatively high levels of the antimicrobial compound clovamide in the leaves of a disease-resistant strain of cacao has significant implications for breeding trees that can tolerate black pod rot, according ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 23, 2020
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43
Chocolate-producing cacao trees that are resistant to a major pathogen were identified by an international team of plant geneticists. The findings point the way for plant breeders to develop trees that are tolerant of the ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 6, 2019
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123
Researchers analyzing the genomes of cultivated cacao trees have traced their origin to a "single domestication event" some 3,600 years ago. The discovery opens a new front in a long-running argument regarding when and where ...
Biotechnology
Oct 24, 2018
1
524
Humans have put yeast to work for thousands of years to make bread, beer, and wine. Wild strains of yeast are also found in the natural fermentations that are essential for chocolate and coffee production. But, as new genetic ...
Biotechnology
Mar 24, 2016
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20
The production of high quality chocolate, and the farmers who grow it, will benefit from the recent sequencing and assembly of the chocolate tree genome, according to an international team led by Claire Lanaud of CIRAD, France, ...
Biotechnology
Dec 26, 2010
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2
Researchers from the University Grenoble Alpes (UGA), France, together with the ESRF, the European Synchrotron located in Grenoble, France, used ESRF's bright X-rays to unveil how cacao trees protect themselves from toxic ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Mar 18, 2024
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3
Cacao has long been a sought-after raw material for the worlds food industry. At first glance, it therefore seems surprising that biology knows little about the pollination of the cacao tree—although it is precisely this ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 6, 2022
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4
