Chocolate genome has been unlocked according a team of researchers of candy firm Mars Inc.

The DNA mapping of the cacao tree whose seeds form the, core essence for chocolate has been, complete and claimed a success.

The step has been taken in order to curb the losses witnessed by pests and plant disease causing $700 to $800 million as damages each year, affecting the lives of 6.5 million farmers in Southeast Asia, West Africa and South America.

Scientists in this project made use of most commonly-grown version i.e. the cacao the Matina 1-6 cultivar, which vitally forms the essence of 99% of commercially cultivated cacao.

It was stated that the sequencing attempts were completed in record time and were done in a much cheaper cost. The cacao genome was sequenced was sequenced ahead of its time in merely two years, two months and ten days as stated by Mars scientist Howard Shapiro. Similar procedure employed for sequencing turkey had priced only $200,000, compared to the millions it took to sequence the chicken genome in 2004.

The group from Virginia Tech, Utah State University and the University of Minnesota did the entire research and has been released in the journal PLoS-Biology. The sponsorship however, was done by Mars, the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service and IBM and will be showcased in public domain at the Cacao genome Database.