Science, Space and Technology News 2024
Researchers have developed the highest quality reference genome for the Arabica coffee species, revealing its evolution over 600,000 years and its natural development without human intervention. This new genome sheds light on Arabica’s susceptibility to climate change and pests due to its low genetic diversity, and offers potential for breeding new varieties that are more resistant to environmental stresses.
Coffee giants like Starbucks and Tim Hortons exclusively use beans from Arabica plants to brew the millions of cups of coffee they serve everyday, yet, in part due to a low genetic diversity stemming from a history of inbreeding and small population size, Arabica is susceptible to many pests and diseases and can only be cultivated in a few places in the world where pathogen threats are lower and climate conditions are more favorable.
The models show three population bottlenecks during Arabica’s history, with the oldest happening some 29,000 generations — or 610,000 years — ago. This suggests Arabica formed sometime before that, anywhere from 610,000 to 1 million years ago, researchers say. That would align with evidence that coffee cultivation may have started principally in Yemen, around the 15th century. Indian monk Baba Budan is believed to have smuggled the fabled “seven seeds” out of Yemen around 1600, establishing Indian Arabica cultivars and setting the stage for coffee’s global reach today.
During this same time, around 30,000 years ago, the wild varieties and the varieties that would eventually become cultivated by humans split from each other. The Timor variety formed in Southeast Asia as a spontaneous hybrid between Arabica and one of its parents,. Also known as Robusta and used primarily for instant coffee, this species is more resistant to disease than Arabica“Thus, when Robusta hybridized itself back into Arabica on Timor, it brought some of its pathogen defense genes along with it,” says Albert, who also co-led
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