1 research outputs found
Genomic evaluation of Coffea arabica and its wild relative Coffea racemosa in Mozambique: settling resilience keys for the Coffee crop in the context of climate change
Climate change is negatively affecting the coffee value chain, with a direct effect on
approximately 100 million people from 80 countries. This has been attributed to the high vulnerability
of the two-mainstream species, Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora, to extreme weather events, with
notable uneven increases in market prices. Taking into account the narrow genetic plasticity of the
commercial coffee cultivars, wild-relatives and underutilized Coffea species are valuable genetic
resources. In this work, we have assessed the occurrence of Coffea species in to understand the
degree of genetic relationships between Coffea species in the country, as well as the patterns of genetic
diversity, differentiation, and genetic structure. Only one wild species was found, C. racemosa, which
showed a high level of genetic separation with C. arabica, based on plastid, as well as SSR and SNP
analysis. C. arabica presented low levels of diversity likely related to their autogamous nature, while
the allogamous C. racemosa presented higher levels of diversity and heterozygosity. The analysis of
the functional pathways based on SNPs suggests that the stress signaling pathways are more robust
in this species. This novel approach shows that it is vital to introduce more resilient species and
increase genomic diversity in climate-smart practices.This researchwas funded by by Camões, Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua (CICL), Agência
Brasileira de Cooperação (ABC), and ParqueNacional da Gorongosa (PNG), under the Triangular Project
TriCafé (GorongosaCoffee), and by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio