Penn State Uses Cloning Technology To Improve Cocoa Plants UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre Co.) Scientists in a Pain State research program have developed a process to clone genetically identical cocoa trees from cocoa flowers, which could enhance co coa plant quality on a large scale. And that, in turn, could increase cocoa farming profitably and sta bilize the Supply of cOcoa beans on the global market. “Right now, cocoa plants are grown from seed, and these plants vary greatly in their yield and dis ease resistance,” said Mark Guilti nan, associate professor of plant molecular biology in the College of Agricultural Sciences. “In some cases, up to SO percent of the trees can be substandard. By selecting the best trees and producing identical clones, we potentially can increase plant productivity on farms.” Guiltinan and a team of scient ists soon will begin a long-term field test of cloned cocoa plants at the Union Vale Estate on Saint Lucia Island in the West Indies (located off the northern coast of South America). The estate is owned by Edmund Opler, chief executive officer of World’s Fin est Chocolate Inc. The Penn State team, funded by the American Cocoa Research In- stitute, collected flowers from 14 of the most productive cocoa trees on the estate. As a control, they also collected flowers from sever al of the worst trees. The flowers were flown back to Penn State University Park campus, where individual cells from the buds were grown into full-sized plants. Guiltinan says the process, called “somatic embryogenesis,” repli cates a more complete plant than those derived from grafting. “Plants produced from grafts do not develop a tap root that can sus tain the plant in adverse condi tions,” Guiltinan explained. “Grafted plants also grow in the shape of a bush and have to be pruned during growth to resemble a natural cocoa tree. In Brazil alone, there are 660 million cocoa plants, which means a lot of prun ing.” The plants produced from the flower cells have been grown in Penn State greenhouses for the past year. By June, the cloned co coa 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 mea sure growth rates, pod production and chocolate-making quality. “When plant breeders find a superior plant, the idea is to make more of them,” Guiltinan said. “A tree grown from a single cell is genetically identical to the parent tree from which the flower was isolated. This means plant breed ers can choose plants that are best adapted to a particular geographic area or are resistant to certain dis- eases.” Guiltinan said 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, produc tion and disease resistance. “Com breeders can produce three gen erations of plants in one year,” Guiltinan said. “Cocoa will take 15 years to reach the same stage of development.” If tests prove positive, then co coa-producing nations can in crease production of promising lines of cocoa plants. “Brazil cur rently has 600 million plants sus ceptible to disease, and breeders there have only a few hundred plants from which to start a breed ing program,” Guiltinan ex plained. Guiltinan said the economic im plications of Penn State’s research are significant. Most cocoa is grown on small farms in five countries: Brazil, Ghana, Indo nesia, the Ivory Coast and Malay sia. If breeding programs can pro duce plants particularly well suited for different growing areas, farmers’ incomes will increase. In addition, the elimination of boom or bust crop cycles will help sta bilize world cocoa production, which would benefit Pennsyl vania’s $4 billion chocolate indus try. Pennsylvania is the country’s top chocolate-producing state. Increased cocoa production also may have an ecological bene fit, Guillinan says. The cocoa plants are a sustainable crop for tropical ecosystems because they are grown for long periods of time. The plants also require a large canopy of shade trees for growth, which offers superior habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife. In addition, cocoa farms could act as connective greenways between islands of rainforest habitat In addition to the Penn State cloning process, which has a pro visional patent Guiltinan’s team also is starting a genetic engineer ing research program to breed plants resistant to disease and pests. By injecting a plant with the DNA of a natural pesticide, horti culturists can breed plants resist ant to such pests as the cocoa pod borer, which is the major pest in Malaysia, or the myriad, an insect that infests cocoa crops in the Ivory Coast. Similar treatments for such plant diseases as witch’s broom, pod rot and cocoa swollen shoot virus could be engineered into the genetic blueprint for co coa plants, Guiltinan said. “Forty percent of the cocoa crop is lost to disease and pests every year,” Guiltinan said. “That’s billions of dollars lost to the economies of cocoa-producing countries.” COW MATTRESSFS 1 L POINTS TO CONSIDER; • NORTH BROOK FARMS’ 80 oz. nonwoven Top Cover is 38% heavier than P-Mat’s • NORTH BROOK FARMS’ 48”x66” Mattress uses 30% more rubber than P-Mat’s • NORTH BROOK FARMS’ Warranty is 33% Longer than P-Mat’s (tie stall) NORTH BROOK FARMS’ Retail Price From $45.95 Per Stall P-Mat’s Quoted Price: From $55.00 per Stall North Brook Farms Cow Mattresses... Feature for Feature... Price for price THE SOLUTION for COW COMFORT in your Bam!!! Installation Available * Includes 4’ of topcover and 48”x62” mattress Pedigreed Council Honors Core ST. 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