Coffee agro-ecosystems have been under siege with the repeated resurgence of fungal epidemics during the last decade. Focusing on the devastating fungal pathogen Hemileia vastatrix, the main threat to Arabica coffee production worldwide, this project intends to apply an integrative pathogenomics approach to dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying virulence divergence and evolution of pathotypes, and to develop molecular markers for high-throughput discrimination of races. To achieve this goal, a high-quality reference genome will be assembled and annotated and then used in combination with comparative genomics, genome-wide association and transcriptomic analyses to identify SNPs, genomic changes and candidate effector genes, that can be linked to rust virulence profiles. Based on generated markers, diagnostic tools and a web platform will be developed serving as a basis for the much needed design of sustainable disease control practices and establishment of worldwide disease surveys

Principal investigator (PI) - Dora Batista 

Co-principal investigator (Co-PI) - Vitor Várzea