World's chocolate supply threatened by devastating virus
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.
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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218
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
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
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
Cacao farms not only provide us with the pleasure of chocolate, but also offer potential advantages for biodiversity-friendly agriculture. The benefits to biodiversity have been widely studied in tropical rainforests, but ...
Ecology
Dec 15, 2021
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18
It's almost impossible to imagine a world without chocolate. Yet cacao trees, which are the source of chocolate, are vulnerable.
Plants & Animals
Feb 10, 2021
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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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Chocolate is almost universally adored. But few know the complicated process of how cacao beans become chocolate. Did you know cacao tree farming is done mostly by small-scale low-income farmers in Latin America, particularly ...
Environment
Oct 6, 2020
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10
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
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