China News Service, Beijing, January 24 (Reporter Sun Zifa) A new genetics paper published in Nature Communications, an academic journal of Springer Nature, stated that researchers reported that Arabica, which accounts for about 60% of global coffee production, Improved genome assembly of coffee beans. This plant genome discovery reveals the source of coffee's genetic diversity, which may contribute to its unique flavor and disease resistance.
The paper introduces that commercial coffee mainly consists of medium-sized coffee and small-sized coffee, the so-called robusta coffee and arabica coffee.
Arabica coffee is the product of a cross between the ancestor of today’s Robusta coffee and another closely related coffee species.
This hybridization brings Arabica coffee's flavor profile and its large, complex genome, creating breeding and genetic research challenges.
Some partial genome assemblies of Arabica coffee have been assembled, but the mechanisms that generate its genetic diversity are unclear.
In this study, the co-corresponding authors of the paper, Michele Morgante of the University of Udine in Italy, and Gabriele Di Gaspero of the Italian Institute of Applied Genetics, together with colleagues and collaborators, generated a more complete genome of Arabica coffee by using the latest sequencing technology. Assembly, allowing detailed analysis of its chromosome structure.
In an analysis that included previously unavailable genomes, such as those around centromeres, the authors discovered differences in genome structure, function and evolution caused by the two ancestral species, particularly in genes involved in caffeine biosynthesis.
They also analyzed the genomes of 174 samples, collected from different species of the genus Coffea, and noted the presence of very low levels of genetic diversity in Arabica coffee.
Increased diversity in specific genetic regions of some Arabica coffee cultivars comes from two different sources of variation: chromosomal abnormalities, and a Robusta-Arabica hybrid (the "Timor" hybrid) source of genetic fragments.
This hybrid, the parent strain of many modern cultivars, combines the disease resistance of Robusta with the unique flavor of Arabica.
The authors of the paper concluded that the genetic diversity of Arabica coffee beans is indispensable for its commercial success, and that this research discovery may help develop new coffee varieties with desirable characteristics, such as disease resistance or different flavor profiles. .
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