Coffee Crisis Spurs Hunt for Helpful Genes [Slide Show]

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With cultivated coffee in decline, researchers are turning to wild plants for help

Sep 16, 2014 | |

Coffee crops around the world are under serious threat from rising temperatures, shifts in rainfall, insects and disease. In the October writer Hillary Rosner reports on the and what scientists are doing about it. The central challenge is that cultivated coffee is highly homogeneous, making it particularly vulnerable to environmental change. Researchers are thus studying the vast genetic diversity in wild coffee plants, searching for helpful genes that could be introduced into cultivated crops via cross-breeding. Scientists have described around 125 coffee species and no doubt more await discovery.

>>View a slide show of coffee species here.