Wild or Introduced? Investigating the Genetic Landscape of Cacao Populations in South America.

ABSTRACT: Cacao (Theobroma cacao), the primary source for chocolate manufacturing, is native to the Upper Amazon basin. It was introduced into Mesoamerica by pre-Columbian societies and later spread globally following European colonization, becoming a commercially significant crop. Today, cacao populations exist along a continuum from wild to naturalized and cultivated forms across the Tropical Americas, complicating efforts to distinguish genuinely wild populations from those influenced by human activity. Here, we investigate genomic diversity, population structure, and domestication signals in three groups using RAD-sequencing: Upper Amazonian populations (including Contamana, Marañón, Iquitos and Nanay), the Guiana population, and the Amelonado variety introduced into Eastern Brazil in the

SUBMITTER: Colli-Silva M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12283127 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature