Genetic diversity of Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica L.) collections

Abstract

Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica L.) has its centre of origin and diversity in south-western
Ethiopian highlands. Its populations exist as wild and under production systems. There is
limited use of molecular genetic diversity information of Ethiopian Arabica coffee in the
improvement programs. Thus, generating genetic diversity information is an important
parameter in the future efforts of Arabica coffee genetic resources conservation and
sustainable utilization. Hence, in this study the genetic diversity of Arabica coffee
collections were studied using 32 microsatellite (SSRs) markers. The result indicated high
genetic variability reserve with a lot of specificity in Ethiopian Arabica coffees. More than
90% of the total alleles were detected in Ethiopian Arabica coffee. Of the total alleles
detected in Ethiopian Arabica coffee, about 83.7 % and 46.4 % were polymorphic and
specific, respectively. The cultivated cultivars contained only 53.6 % of the total alleles
detected in indicating the genetic diversity bottleneck due to early human impacts. In the
cluster analysis, Ethiopian Arabica coffees with larger within population genetic distances
were clearly separated from the cultivated cultivars. The result suggests the potential
application of SSRs in genetic diversity study of Arabica coffee according to its origin and
the possibility of high potential to use Ethiopian Arabica coffee gene pool in the
improvement programs.