Daily Coffee News, Breeding and Genetics Study Traces Arabica to Prehistoric Times
Research commissioned by Nestlé suggests that the arabica coffee species was birthed 350,000-600,000 years ago through a natural mating between two different coffee species in the wild forests of what is now known as Ethiopia.
While this may be a fun bit of dinner party trivia, it also represents a breakthrough in the genome sequencing of arabica coffee, potentially unlocking secrets to future arabica genetic modification and breeding, according to an international consortium of researchers who wrote the study.
“We’ve used genomic information in plants alive today to go back in time and paint the most accurate picture possible of Arabica’s long history, as well as determine how modern cultivated varieties are related to each other,” study co-corresponding author Victor Albert of the University of Buffalo Department of Biological Sciences said in an announcement of the publication last month. “A detailed understanding of the origins and breeding history of contemporary varieties are crucial to developing new Arabica cultivars better adapted to climate change.”
The new study was published in April by the Springer Nature-owned journal Nature Genetics.
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