Arabica coffee reference genome is sequenced with the participation of Brazilian researchers

A collaborative study by researchers from Embrapa Café and the Café Research Consortium, published in Nature Genetics, has achieved the most detailed genetic mapping of Coffea arabica to date, offering new insights into its genome, diversification history, and traits like disease resistance and drought tolerance. This research not only sheds light on the evolutionary origins of Arabica coffee, suggesting it began between 10,000 and 1 million years ago with a significant bottleneck around 610 thousand years ago, but also challenges previous beliefs about the geographic origins of coffee cultivation. Contrary to the idea that coffee was first cultivated in Ethiopia, findings indicate a split between wild and cultivated varieties across the Great Rift Valley, proposing an initial cultivation region between Ethiopia and Yemen. This groundbreaking work has practical applications in improving Brazilian coffee farming through technology for certification and traceability, and redefines our understanding of coffee's history and genetic development.