Genomics of Theobroma cacao, “the Food of the Gods”

Abstract

Theobroma cacao, the chocolate tree, is an important tropical tree-crop that provides sustainable economic and environmental benefits to some of the poor- est and most ecologically sensitive areas of the world. Recent progress in the development of genomics tools for cacao is reviewed. These include a reference molecular genetic map, simple sequence repeats and other molecular markers, two germplasm databases with microsatellite DNA fingerprints and other molecular data,many quantitative trait loci mapping projects which have identified disease re- sistance and yield component loci, several expressed sequence tag resources, a cacao microarray, bacterial artificial chromosome libraries, and a genetic transformation system. The evolutionary relatedness of cacao with other important crops andmodel plant systems positions cacao genomics to play a significant role in translational plant genomics. The future prospects for the contribution of cacao genomics to im- provement of this crop for sustainable cacao production and as a tool for poverty alleviation and environmental stabilization are discussed.