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from the maybe-they-can-get-a-grant-from-starbucks dept.
When coffee leaf rust—which was first spotted in East Africa in the 1860s—made it to South America in the 1970s, Colombia's national coffee research center, Cenicafé, was already a decade into its rust resistance breeding program.
The rust, called roya in Spanish, is a fungus (Hemileia vastatrix) that is highly contagious due to airborne fungal spores. It affects different varieties, but the Arabica beans are especially susceptible. Rainy weather worsens the problem. The rust typically enters the coffee leaf via the stomata.
Their methods were traditional cross, breeding, planting, evaluating rust resistance, comparing taste and aroma. It was a long and arduous process, sometimes taking 25 years to develop a cultivar that was rust resistant. Still, Cenicafé succeeded with two cultivars, Colombia (in 1980) and Castillo (in 2005) that have been reasonably rust resistant.
Now ScienceMag is reporting that sequencing the genome of major Coffee families is shortening this development cycle by documenting those coffee genes that provide resistance. At the same time the sequencing of rust genes has identified those elements of its genome that are involved in gaining entry into the coffee leaf.
By selecting coffee for cross breeding with a map of the genome in hand, and analyzing the genome of the resultant plant, they can shorten the 25 year development cycle down to less than a year, without having to wait until the trees mature.
Unlike genetically modifying seed to tolerate pesticides, this method of selecting for the most resistant strains does not require the use of pesticides.
"Coffee farms the world over are still planting susceptible cultivars that increasingly require pesticides to fend off disease. This heavy application of pesticides is irresponsible", Álvaro Gaitán, a plant pathologist at Colombia's national coffee research center, says, "especially on small-holder farms like the ones dotting Colombia. "Every time you recommend the use of a pesticide you're exposing the farm family, too, because they live very close to these fields," he says. "And many of these coffee diseases are controlled by natural enemies of the fungus. You don't want to kill those off."
The US government will be offering a 5 million dollar aid package in partnership with Texas A&M Coffee Research Center to combat the fungus.
(Score: 2) by zafiro17 on Friday September 19 2014, @07:07PM
Great subject, and I'm thrilled/grateful to see some informed and scientific discussion around here. SN keeps getting better and better.
Coffee rust is a game changer in most coffee producing countries. I lived in one for about 5 years - Nicaragua, Central America - and when the coffee rust gets bad there is no harvest and people go hungry. There's a human element involved too, as bad management of coffee plantations has a lot to do with the spread of rust. But giving a little push in the direction of more resistant plants would be an economic game changer for many. Interesting article; thanks for posting it - I'll try to link from a couple of places including http://www.gotonicaragua.com/ [gotonicaragua.com] which follows subjects related to the country.
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