IBM To Help Sequence the Chocolate Genome

Dekortage writes "The New York Times reports this morning that IBM will work with Mars — the candy company who makes M&Ms and Snickers, among other things — on a five year project to sequence the cocoa genome. According to Howard-Yana Shapiro, global director of plant science at Mars, the goal is to 'discover the genetic building blocks of traits like disease and pest resistance, drought tolerance and perhaps flavor.' Additionally, the project's results will be available for free from the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture."

Chocolate Gnome plan

[Noren (605012)]

1. Sequence cocoa DNA
2. Publish in the public domain
3. ???
4. Profit!

Re:

[bagsc (254194)]

3. Have agricultural scientists develop healthier, tastier, easier to grow, cheaper cocoa plants, saving you money on you biggest input expense.

Re:Chocolate Gnome plan

[Foofoobar (318279)]

3. Have agricultural scientists crossbreed cocoa with cannabis for healthier, tastier and easier to bake brownies. (not to mention easier to bake humans)

Re:

[jdb2 (800046)]

I second that!

But seriously it's actually thought, because of recent research, that chocolate is so pleasurable because it contains trace amounts of cannabinoids.

I can see it now "In an ongoing series of police raids in an effort to stop the illegal use and sale of Cocoa, officials seized 100 pounds of Wonka chocolate bars that were in the possession of a previously cited Cocoa abusing teenager. As a dealer, he faces a possible life sentence if convicted."

jdb2

Re:

[jdb2 (800046)]

Forgot to post a link to the research.

I can't remember the exact study, but googling the journals sure turns up a lot of stuff : http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=cocoa+OR+cacao+OR+chocolate+cannabinoid+OR+cannabinoids+OR+cannabis&hl=en&lr=&btnG=Search [google.com]

jdb2

Off-topic, but hopefully helpful

[jeiler (1106393)]

"cannabinoid OR cannabinoids" is redundant in a Google search string--Google understands regular English plurals.

Re:

[jdb2 (800046)]

D'oh! Forgot to put in the oblig. line "with a street value of $150,000" and yes, the second paragraph was jocular ( apparently we have some immature newbies that can't objectively moderate or else my humor just sucks, which is a distinct possibility :)

jdb2

Re:

[Foofoobar (318279)]

no... it says "to bake MANY"

Re:

[Foofoobar (318279)]

Better than the usual mormon jokes that we tell around here.

Re:Chocolate Gnome plan

[Max Littlemore (1001285)]

Even better...

3. Have agricultural scientists develop edible brussel sprouts.

Re:

[Max Littlemore (1001285)]

The edible Brussel sprout was first developed in Belgium circa 1400

Nice troll AC.

Re:

[Dekortage (697532)]

That's true for a lot of Mars candy, to be sure, but they also own Dove, which actually turns out some reasonably good chocolate from time to time.

Re:

[KevinKnSC (744603)]

3. Exploit a quarter-million children to work your cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast.

Re:

[jeiler (1106393)]

Good plan, but needs a laser in there somewhere....

May I be the first to say---

[Gat0r30y (957941)]

Sweet.
sorry, I couldn't help myself. thats it i'm going home for the day.

Call me a pessimist

[EdIII (1114411)]

I don't think IBM and Mars could work together and concentrate on anything less than "flavor".

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea. I just don't think there is as much altruism in this project as is claimed.

I know this is a stretch, but I would love to see this research lead to the first chocolate covered peanut tree. Or bush, I'm flexible.

Call me a realist

[FurtiveGlancer (1274746)]

Actually, they'll have to map the whole thing to hopefully locate the flavor genes. Others will benefit from the data shared in PIPRA (love the acronym).

As to the organically grown chocolate covered peanut, since they grow underground, how would one know that the dirt had been adequately washed off?

Cacao not cocoa

[Alomex (148003)]

You cannot decode the "chocolate genome" nor the "cocoa genome" any more than you can decode the flour genome. Chocolate, cocoa and flour are food stuffs, not plants. What IBM wants to do is decode the cacao genome.

Re:Cacao not cocoa

[philspear (1142299)]

In unrelated news, scientists at IBM today isolated a new gene called the "anal retentive gene." It is highly related to the "grammar nazi" gene, and belongs to the "someone has way too much time on their hands" family of genes.

Anyway, alomex, you should probably e-mail Mars and IBM right now. They're going to be wasting a lot of time and chocolate otherwise.

More farming options

[davidwr (791652)]

imagine being able to create a plant that can grow in a diffrent climate

Like maybe here [slashdot.org]?

Re:

[jeiler (1106393)]

Mars owns Mars? I for one welcome our chocolate-producing overlords!

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

so my noodles don't have genes? :(

Yes, they do - they're vegetables: they grow in trees, and are harvested in places like Switzerland [museumofhoaxes.com]

Re:

[Alomex (148003)]

Don't worry that the rest of the world uses common names for things.

Let's see....

Google query: cacao in english language pages
Results: 4,830,000

Google query: "cocoa tree"
Results: 50,700

Heck cacao tree alone, which is redundant as cacao *is* the tree and nothing else beats that:

Google query: "cacao tree"
Results: 65,700

So no, cocoa is not the day to day term for cacao. In contrast human *is* the day to day term for homo sapiens, so I have no problem with IBM decoding the "human genome".

Re:Cacao not cocoa

[dreamchaser (49529)]

Since you're going to be pedantic, the Wikipedia entry cleary states that the Cacao is also known as the Cocoa Plant [wikipedia.org].

There, I see your dubious Internet refrence and raise you another dubious Internet reference. People know *exactly* what is meant by cocoa plant.

Re:

[Dekortage (697532)]

Actually the headline says "Sequence the Chocolate Genome" -- you cocoa/cacao purists must really have your shorts in a knot over that one.

Re:

[Alomex (148003)]

It's one of the commonly used names. But feel free to trust google as the only authority on the English language.

I actually looked it up in Webster's and the OED as well, but did not report it as common usage. However even the editors of the OED admit that Google is ahead of them in terms of *tracking* English usage.

Amazingly people manage to cope with using multiple names for the one thing.

Hint: Cocoa is a brown powder, cacao is a plant.

Coffee plant next please

[Gewalt (1200451)]

Caffeine and Chocolate are supposed to be very similar in chemical construction. I would really like to see a single plant that could make both. You know, like those chocolate covered coffee beans, only... actually tasty... Oh ya, and find some way to minimize the sugar and fat needed to make it slightly less bad for you.

Re:Coffee plant next please

[bluefoxlucid (723572)]

Chocolate contains caffeine you idiot.

Re:

[eli pabst (948845)]

Actually I believe he was referring to theobromine which is the primary alkaloid in chocolate and gives it its distinctive bitter taste. You'll often see its structure on T-shirts that are captioned as "Chocolate". It has a similar chemical structure to that of caffeine. Caffeine is only found in relatively small amounts in chocolate (about 1/10 that of theobromine in most of the literature).

Re:

[Max Littlemore (1001285)]

So hang on, let me get this straight. You're saying your gramps was a jerk and you're a smart arse?

Re:

[bluefoxlucid (723572)]

Well, my gramps was a Democrat, but that's basically an amplification of 'jerk'.

Re:

[Gewalt (1200451)]

OK, Nevermind then. Apparenly there is already a tiny amount of caffeine in chocolate. Approximately 1/10th an 8oz (tiny) cup of coffee's worth in an entire chocolate bar.

Then in that case, I'd just want well.. MORE!

Re:

[CastrTroy (595695)]

Well, if you want a bar without too much sugar and fat, there's always the Lindt 99% cocoa bar [calorielab.com]. Personally, I prefer the 70% bar better myself. Dark chocolate is a lot better for you because it contains a lot less sugar, and you feel satisfied after eating just a small amount. Remember to savour, not just swallow the pieces whole.

Re:

[nog_lorp (896553)]

And it is effing delicious compared to milk chocolate.

Re:

[zippthorne (748122)]

Coffee doesn't have beans, it has pits.

Re:

[Gewalt (1200451)]

Those are not mutually exclusive definitions.

Re:

[Gewalt (1200451)]

Here's your Pony! [userstyles.org]

What will they discover?

[Cathoderoytube (1088737)]

I have a feeling they're going to discover something that they really wouldn't want to know. Like Chocolate is 99% the same genetically as poop.

Next week: Genome tests for chocolate have been canceled. One representative was heard to say 'Well, I don't think anybody's interested in this. Let's talk about something else.. Uhh... Free candy bars for everybody!'

Re:What will they discover?

[Max Littlemore (1001285)]

I have a feeling they're going to discover something that they really wouldn't want to know. Like Chocolate is 99% the same genetically as poop

Or even worse, they'll discover that if they remove the gene responsible for creating caffeine from cacao, they'll end up with carob. Personally, I'm hoping for the poop scenario.

Re:

[nog_lorp (896553)]

What? I thought that's what carob was...

Quick! Somebody get Tay Zonday!

[jejones (115979)]

There's got to be a good song in this.

Maybe the flavor

[Frantactical Fruke (226841)]

See, that's we went from delicious but tiny wild strawberries and tomatoes to big red water bags traded under the same name: taste always comes last in the industry's priorities. Perhaps someone could clue in the cocoa producers that chocoholics can be just as discerning about taste as wine aficionados ...okay, most of us are barely more discerning than your average back alley wino...

wo!

[BigBlueOx (1201587)]

M&M Mars?? GIVING away research?? "The CIA of the candy industry"?? The company that won't even give plant tours to schoolchildren for fear of exposing trade secrets?? The candy company with NDAs?? The company that won't even reply to schoolchildren's letters with *promotional* *literature*??

Ok. What's *really* going on?

oops KIR - KOS lol cya

Re:

[n6kuy (172098)]

No, but if they make any genetic modifications that result in flavor^h^h^h^h^h^h money enhancement, you betcha they'll patent THAT.

Re:Damn!

[X0563511 (793323)]

First, people stopped reading the articles. Next, they stopped reading the summaries.

I think we are now at the point where people stop reading the comments. Next after that, people will stop reading what they typed, and from that what they are typing. In only a few short steps Slashdot will become the biggest random number generator in existance.

Re:Damn!

[jesdynf (42915)]

I'm sorry, but... did you SEE your handle?

Re:

[Drooling Iguana (61479)]

4. Profit!

Re:Damn!

[owlnation (858981)]

I think we are now at the point where people stop reading the comments. Next after that, people will stop reading what they typed, and from that what they are typing. In only a few short steps Slashdot will become the biggest random number generator in existance.

Like Digg then?

Re:

[CastrTroy (595695)]

39 39 A8 A0 39 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 7B 83 F9

Re:

[An ominous Cow art (320322)]

That's odd, I don't recall seeing any press releases by K'breel, the speaker for the Council of Elders.