Penn State was first to apply molecular biology to cocoa, notes plant molecular biologist Mark Guiltinan, shown here with senior research associate Siela Maximova.

If Chopra can solve the disease riddle in corn, he may be able to customize the solution to other species. “We think that this knowledge can be applied to members of the grass family, because anthracnose is a very serious problem in turfgrasses, for example,” he says. “We may look at how we can improve upon their resistance to anthracnose. Seed companies are very much interested in breeding corn and other species that are resistant to anthracnose.”

Mark Guiltinan’s Penn State laboratory is exploring disease resistance and other genetic traits of a crop that is not grown in Pennsylvania but is of vital importance to the state’s food industry. Cocoa is even more important to growers in tropical countries such as Ghana and Ivory Coast, where cocoa beans are the main export and fuel the entire economy.

Cocoa is the ideal cash crop for that steamy part of the world—the product needs no refrigeration and won’t rot before it is shipped. “So much depends on cocoa,” says Guiltinan, a plant molecular biologist who has been involved in cocoa genetic research for almost nine years. “Penn State cocoa research is aimed at increasing and stabilizing cocoa production
and improving the economic status of cocoa farmers and producing countries,” he says.

The connection between cocoa, the region where it is grown, Pennsylvania, and Penn State is strong, if improbable, Guiltinan explains. Long ago, chocolate maker Milton Hershey chose the Keystone State for his company because Pennsylvania was a leading dairy state and his products used large quantities of milk. Other chocolate confectioners followed, making the commonwealth the number-one chocolate-producing state in the country. And in 1986, the chocolate industry funded an endowment for cocoa research at Penn State, of which Guiltinan is the third director.

“Penn State made a name for itself in this area because it was the first place where molecular biology was applied to cocoa,” Guiltinan says. “The first cocoa genes that were ever cloned were done here, the first cocoa gene mapping was done here with gene markers, and we are the only ones so far to make transgenic cocoa plants and the first tissue cultures of cocoa. We were the first to apply molecular biology to tropical trees.

“For years we have been trying to understand how plants develop, how genes control those processes, and how plants interact with their environment,” he adds. “We try to understand how genes function and get turned on and off, and what genes do. We believe our work eventually will lead to improved crops that will aid in feeding the world.”