Abstract
Coffee is one of the most preferred beverages consumed by millions of
people throughout the world. It is cultivated in more than 80 countries in tropical and
subtropical zones of Asia, Africa, and Latin America and provides livelihood to 125
million people worldwide. Among 125 coffee species known so far, only two coffee
species, Coffea arabica (arabica coffee) and Coffea canephora (robusta coffee), are
commercially cultivated for beverage production. Coffee is a perennial plant and
therefore subjected to constant environmental stress. However, during the last few
decades, sustainable coffee cultivation has been threatened by unprecedented climate
change. This calls for unified efforts, including cutting-edge research and modified
management practices. Although conventional breeding efforts have been developed to
address some issues, emerging biotechnology research, especially in-vitro propagation
technology, could augment the coffee cultivation landscape. Despite the tangible
progress made in coffee tissue culture, there were some grey areas, such as the level of
somaclonal variation and the genomic changes associated with somatic embryogenesis
in coffee, which needs to be addressed imminently. This chapter provides detailed
progress on coffee tissue culture and addresses some of the critical issues associated
with the genetic homogeneity of tissue culture plants.
Keywords: Coffee, Micropropagation, Somatic embryogenesis, Field evaluation, Genetic fidelity, Molecular markers, Functional genes sequencing.