Addressing climate change threats to coffee production: Investigating proline and energetic metabolism for enhanced coffee tree drought resilience – ACT-COFFEE

Coffee production faces major challenges associated with increases in global average temperature and changes in precipitation patterns, directly impacting water availability. Estimates from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicate that climate change will have adverse effects on global coffee yields and reduce suitable coffee-growing areas by 2050. In Brazil, coffee is one of the most important traded commodities. One essential strategy to address the issue of water deficiency in coffee cultivation is gaining a deeper understanding of how coffee plants respond to drought and the underlying mechanisms. Our proposed research intend to investigate the influence of proline metabolism on water relations and the adaptation of coffee plants to stress through biochemical and molecular analyses. Proline, a multifunctional amino acid, accumulates in plants when they face challenging environmental conditions. Despite its significance, research on the effects of proline metabolism and its role in the energetic metabolism of coffee under water stress and stress recovery remains limited. Our study will focus on two of the most significant coffee species: Coffea arabica, which accounts for approximately 60% of global coffee production, and Coffea canephora, primarily used for blending and instant coffee. To conduct our research, we will utilize various genetic resources readily available at the Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC): C. arabica commercial cultivars, C. arabica botanical varieties, C. canephora nematode resistant clones and Arabusta hybrids. The data we obtain have the potential to significantly contribute to breeding programs and, in the long term, assist in mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change on coffee cultivation practices.