India Research Organization Contributes to Coffee Genomics Efforts

India's Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology has joined the 14 countries of the International Coffee Genomics Network, which was organized in 2005.

As part of this effort, India's Hyderabad-based CCMB has completed a program to analyze DNA fingerprints and generate possible desirable molecular markers of a group of varieties of the coffea genus and will share data with the University of Trieste in Italy with hopes of creating a coffee breeding program based on this data as well as organize genotypes and create intellectual property surrounding the information, according to an article in India's Financial Express publication.

The ICGN members, besides India's Ramesh Aggarwal of the CCMB and BK Jayarama and HL Sreentath of the country's Central Coffee Research Institute, includes scientists from Kenya, Brazil, France, Colombia, UK, Italy, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, and the US (from Hawaii and Cornell University).

The ICGN's mission, according to the group's website, is to “decipher the genetic and molecular bases of important biological traits in coffee tree species that are relevant to the growers, processers and consumers.”

World coffee production in 2004 was 110.5 million 60-kilo bags worth some $5 billion. Production in 2005 was expected to shrink 5 percent, led by Brazil's production of over 30 million bags. See New Biology Economy, August 18, 2005