Verification of identities in global cacao germplasm collections

The ex situ conservation of cacao genetic resources is in the form of field genebanks. Misidentified trees though, represent a serious problem to (i) curators, who need to capture genetic diversity, and (ii) users of germplasm material, who must be certain of the identities of the accessions for proper evaluation of their results. The presence of mislabelled trees was assessed from data compiled in the International Cocoa Germplasm Database (ICGD) 2000 v4.1CD-ROM, which contains the published records of cacao accessions in global holdings. Circumstantial evidence revealed that many germplasm collections, especially those in Brazil (CEPEC), Colombia (ICA), Costa Rica (CATIE), Côte d'Ivoire, Mexico, Malaysia, Togo, Trinidad (ICG,T) and Venezuela (EEC) probably possessed misidentified material. The severity of the problem ranged from 15–44 % and is suggested as an area for immediate resolution. Based upon the morphological data provided by the ICGD CD-ROM, several accessions were highly suspect, including 'EET 19 [ECU]', 'EET 48 [ECU]', 'EET 162 [ECU]', 'ICS 1', 'ICS 6', 'ICS 43', 'ICS 89', 'ICS 100', 'IMC 67', 'PA 121 [PER]', 'POUND 7 [POU]', 'SCA 6', 'SPA 9 [COL]', 'UF 29', 'UF 613' and 'UF 667'. However, the identification of mislabelled trees should depend ultimately on molecular analysis. Hence, the use of voucher specimens for verification is forwarded and the concept of a public domain database for microsatellite analyses of germplasm holdings is raised.