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."

Tobaccolate?

[ErkDemon]

Or maybe they want to grow a chocomato.

(pics of chocolate trees): http://www.chocolatetreebooks.com/treepics.html [chocolatetreebooks.com]