Photo: To Save Chocolate, Scientists to Map Cocoa Genome

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Seeds soon to become cocoa spill from a cacao fruit in Madagascar.

U.S. government scientists believe their candymaker-funded project to map the cocoa bean genome—launched on June 26, 2008—could help farmers in Africa and elsewhere to achieve the same yields with less farmland.

Candymakers will be particularly interested in flavor gene discoveries, one scientist predicts.

Photograph by Albert Moldvay/NGS

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