Editing Cacao Gene to Make High Quality Chocolate

Scientists from the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture are using gene editing on cacao to reduce its absorption of cadmium from soil. This research aims to lower cadmium levels in chocolate.

Cadmium is a heavy metal that may cause negative health effects when consumed in certain amounts. One of the problems in cacao production is the presence of cadmium in the soil where cacao trees are grown, and the trees absorb it. It will be difficult to change the soil, so the scientists decided to use biotech tools such as gene editing to address the issue.

Scientists created minor changes to the cacao gene responsible for absorbing cadmium from the soil. This led them to come up with nine gene-edited cacao lines which are being prepared for transplant from greenhouse to fields with soils from Colombia's cacao-producing areas. The transplants will be tested in field conditions to determine their ability to maintain reduced to zero cadmium absorption. If successful, this will result in chocolate with lower levels of cadmium.

For more information, read the article from USDA.