Application of Genome Studies of Coffee Rust
Résumé
Abstract. The coffee rust, caused by the fungus Hemileia vastatrix, is the most serious disease of this crop worldwide. In Colombia the pathogen causes a reduction in production of up to 30% in susceptible varieties of Coffea arabica, if not controlled mild epidemics can occur and complete crop losses in strong epidemics. We applied genomics to study the evolution of the population of this pathogen due to recent outbreaks of the disease in Colombia. Sequencing was performed using 454 and Illumina technology, using DNA and RNA of 8 and 3 isolates of H. vastatrix, respectively. With the software CEGMA we made a first estimate of the genome size of H. vastatrix resulting in an approximate size of 250 Mb. The hybrid assembly was performed with all sequenced genomes given a coverage of 92% with a GC content of 32%.