What
makes coffee full of beans?
Rio de Janeiro - The genetic makeup of arabica coffee
has been deciphered for the first time by Brazilian researchers
with the hopes of making a better cup o' joe and cementing
Brazil's place as the largest coffee producer in the world.
A
new database with about 200 000 DNA sequences will give
scientists a deep understanding of what makes coffee
tick, said a spokesperson for the Brazilian Coffee Research
and Development Association.
The
two years of research was aimed at helping Brazil produce
more productive types of coffee as well as a "super-coffee"
of higher quality.
Consumers
aim to benefit as well with more substantial coffees
that could appeal to a wide variety of tastes.
Farmers won't be left out in the cold, either, with
researchers seeking ways to produce beans that are more
resistent to disease, insects and harsh weather.
The
official announcement of the mapping of coffee's DNA
is to be given in the coming weeks in Brasilia by President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country produces about
a third of the world's coffee.
The
mapping was done by scientists at the Sao Paulo state
research foundation and the federal government's Agricultural
Research Agency with financing from the Coffee Research
and Development Association.
Jose
Fernando Perez with the Sao Paulo foundation said Brazilian
scientists have much experience in mapping plant genomes,
adding that it is now important for them to turn their
attention to plants that play an important role in Brazilian
agriculture.
"We
have already done that with sugercane and eucalyptus,
and now it's time for coffee," he said.
The
institutions involved said the coffee research has so
far cost about six million real (about R14-million)
but experts said its potential payoff would be far higher,
estimating that genetic changes to coffee plants would
save at least one billion real (about R2,3-billion)
a year through higher productivity and the use of fewer
herbicides and pesticides.
It
also would help the overall economy of Brazil, where
coffee accounts for two percent of exports and seven
million jobs.
Although
the DNA mapping is a breakthrough, researchers know
that their "hardest work" lies before them,
Perez said. They must isolate individual genes and identify
their functions, and that work was expected to take
many years, he said. - Sapa-dpa
in May.
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