Microsatellites in Coffea Arabica L.

DNA polymorphism has became a widespread tool in biotechnology; in fact, they are frequently used for a number of technical approaches as, for example, in agronomic traits identification, variety characterisation, and marker-assisted breeding programmes. Coffea arabica is expected to show polymorphic DNA sequences as any other species and indeed some polymorphisms have been described. However, it has been reported that restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) (Lashermes et al.,1996a) and polymorphism based on polymerase chain reactions (PCR, RAPD) (Orozco-Castillo et al., 1994; Lashermes et al., 1996b) have a relatively low degree of polymorphism (Paillard et al, 1993, 1996). To-date, a high degree of polymorphism has been found only through AFLP (Lashermes et al., 2000). As this species of coffee is autogamous and has a restricted genetic base, its heterozygosity is expected to be relatively low and the probability of finding a polymorphism is correspondingly reduced.