Screening for Resistance to Coffee Leaf Rust

• Autor(a) principal: Varzea, Vitor
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Pereira, Ana Paula, Silva, Maria do Céu Lavado da
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/29819
• topic: Coffee; Hemileia vastatrix; Disease resistance phenotyping; Susceptibility

Coffee leaf rust (CLR), caused by Hemileia vastatrix (Hv), is one of the main limiting factors of Arabica coffee production worldwide. Breeding for rust resistance is the most appropriate and sustainable strategy to control CLR. The char-acterization of coffee resistance to Hv, initiated in the 1930s in India, expanded with the creation of Coffee Rusts Research Center (CIFC) in 1955, in Portugal. Since then, the screening of coffee resistance to Hv races, from different geographical origins, has been carried out assisting breeding programmes of coffee growing countries and originating over 90% of the resistant varieties cultivated worldwide. However, the high adaptability of Hv has resulted in the gradual loss of resistance of some varieties. Thus, the characterization of new sources of resistance is crucial, also to face the recent epidemic resurgence of CLR across Latin America and the Caribbean. Here, we provide a protocol for the screening of coffee resistance to Hv using different methods of inoculation on attached and detached leaves and on leaf disks. Information on environmental and pathogenicity factors that may affect the assess-ment of coffee resistance is also presented. This protocol allows the characterization of rust resistance on coffee mutants at laboratories, greenhouses, and field conditions.