Achievements
- First successful training workshop: Molecular Markers for Germplasm Management 2010.
- Leaf tissue from all of the accessions of the ICG,T have been sampled and DNA extracted for the purpose of using microsatellite (simple sequence repeat - SSR) analysis to genotype each accession and obtain a DNA fingerprint - part of the Global Fingerprinting Project.
- SSR data have been obtained for 1642 accessions.
- SNP data has been obtained for 343 accessions.
- Mislabelled or unlabelled accessions in the International Cocoa Genebank, Trinidad are being identified on a continuous basis.
- Best practices have been established for the extraction of DNA samples of acceptable quality for characterisation using SSRs.
- Participated in the International Cocoa Genome Sequencing Consortium, (one of two cocoa genome sequencing projects,) led by CIRAD. The cocoa genome sequence is available at CocoaGen DB.
- Provided training to visiting students, interns and other researchers in molecular techniques.
