Biotechnology Laboratory
Since 2003, Fundação Procafé has been researching in the field of science that has a great impact on agriculture, food and human health, and has been investing in Biotechnology.
The introduction of these biotechnological methods to support genetic improvement programs has proved to be very useful, especially in perennial crops such as coffee.
Conventional breeding requires up to 30 years of work to produce a new cultivar. Another faster way to develop coffee cultivars is through the selection of mother plants . The selection can be made in just eight years . The selected mother plants are used for the production of seedlings through vegetative propagation using the leaf . This technique is called somatic embryogenesis .
Cloning Coffea Arabica Through Somatic Embryogenesis
Using somatic embryogenesis, the so-called clonal seedlings are produced , which are faithful copies of the mother plant . This technique favors the multiplication of hybrids and higher plants that cannot yet be propagated by seeds. As an aid to somatic embryogenesis, the Procafé Foundation selected mother plants with resistance to leaf miner and rust and launched the first cloned cultivar of arabica coffee in Brazil, Siriema VC4.
In order to reduce the cost of clonal seedlings, somatic embryogenesis has been associated with minicutting, enabling the production of seedlings on a large scale and at an affordable cost for the rural producer.
Currently, Fundação Procafé is starting a large project for the production of clonal seedlings of higher plants and is open to working with external partners.