Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology

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15 Molecular Analysis of a Vanilla Hybrid Cultivated in Costa Rica

Faith C. Belanger and Daphna Havkin-Frenkel

There are 110 species in the genus Vanilla, but only two, V. planifolia and V. tahitensis, are permitted by the United States FDA (21CFR169.175) to be used in food products. V. planifolia is known to have originated in Central America and is currently widely grown commercially in Mexico, Madagascar, India, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, and Indonesia. The origin of V. tahitensis, which is cultivated in Tahiti and Papua New Guinea, has been the subject of much speculation and folklore, since it is not known to exist outside of cultivation. One common speculation has been that it is a hybrid originating from a cross between V. planifolia and V. pompona. Recently DNA sequence analysis revealed that in fact V. tahitensis is a likely hybrid between the Central American species V. planifolia and V. odorata, with V. planifolia as the maternal parent (Lubinsky et al. 2008). How V. tahitensis came to Tahiti has not been documented and why no wild plants have been found in Central America is still not known.

In addition to V. planifolia and V. tahitensis, some of the other Central American Vanilla spp. also produce aromatic flavor compounds in their pods, and have been used in some areas of Central and South America (Weiss 2002). The history of Vanilla use in South America is reviewed in Chapter 8 by Lubinsky et al. Also, the evolutionary relationships of some Vanilla spp. are reviewed in Chapter 14 by Cameron.

There is a vanilla cultivar widely grown in Costa Rica that is commonly considered to be a hybrid between V. planifolia and V. pompona (Schluter et al. 2007). In Chapter 3, Quires describes the cultivar “Vaitsy” that was brought from Madagascar to Costa Rica. The cultivar is said to have been propagated through tissue culture and then widely disseminated to farmers throughout Costa Rica. Vaitsy is widely grown in Costa Rica because it has good resistance to the fungal disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vanillae. To our knowledge, the origin in Madagascar of Vaitsy has not been documented.

In Chapter 2, Hernández-Hernández discusses the Fusarium resistance of the cultivar “Tsy Taitry” developed in Madagascar. Tsy Taitry was developed from an interspecific hybrid between V. planifolia and V. pompona that was then backcrossed to V. planifolia (Bory et al. 2008a). Is the cultivar Vaitsy in Costa Rica the same as the interspecific hybrid cultivar Tsy Taitry developed in Madagascar? There is similarity in the names. However, without documentation from the individuals involved, we cannot answer this question.

In this chapter we present DNA sequence data confirming the hybrid origin of a Vanilla cultivated in Costa Rica. The plant used for this analysis was from a plantation in Costa Rica and was considered to be a hybrid plant.

15.1 METHODS