Kutos Steve, Bennett Ruth E, Santos Danilo, Botero-Delgadillo Esteban, Muletz-Wolz Carly R
Center for Conservation Genomics, Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC, USA.
Migratory Bird Center, Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC, USA.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jun 3;15(1):19387. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-03665-6.
Coffee (Coffea arabica) is a popular beverage worldwide with increasing value placed on sensory qualities as specialty markets grow. Plant-associated microbiomes have emerged as a potential but poorly understood driver of coffee flavor that may interact with other environmental and farm management factors. To determine if coffee plant-associated bacteria are linked with flavor, we collected 320 soil and 320 coffee cherry samples from 22 farms in Cundinamarca, Colombia that varied in farm management system (shade vs. sun-grown) and in flavor (presence vs. absence of a specialty flavor profile). We found, using amplicon sequencing, that soil and cherry bacterial communities differed between sun and shade farms and between farms that did and did not produce specialty flavored coffee, with shade + flavor farms notably distinct. Flavor presence was predicted by the abundance of multiple bacterial strains in soils and cherries, but correlations with flavor differed between sun and shade systems. These bacterial taxa correlated with coffee flavor may guide future efforts to optimize farms for specialty quality characteristics. Overall, the observed complex relationships between plant-associated bacteria and coffee flavor will likely require that initiatives seeking to optimize microbiomes for quality outcomes be tailored to individual farm systems and local conditions.
咖啡（阿拉比卡咖啡）是全球广受欢迎的饮品，随着特色市场的发展，其感官品质的价值越来越受到重视。植物相关微生物群落已成为咖啡风味的一个潜在驱动因素，但人们对其了解甚少，它可能与其他环境和农场管理因素相互作用。为了确定与咖啡植株相关的细菌是否与风味有关，我们从哥伦比亚昆迪纳马卡省的22个农场收集了320份土壤样本和320份咖啡樱桃样本，这些农场的农场管理系统（遮荫种植与阳光种植）和风味（有无特色风味）各不相同。我们通过扩增子测序发现，阳光种植农场和遮荫种植农场之间，以及生产特色风味咖啡的农场和不生产特色风味咖啡的农场之间，土壤和樱桃中的细菌群落存在差异，遮荫 + 风味农场尤为独特。风味的存在可通过土壤和樱桃中多种细菌菌株的丰度来预测，但阳光种植系统和遮荫种植系统中与风味的相关性有所不同。这些与咖啡风味相关的细菌分类群可能会为未来优化农场特色品质特征的工作提供指导。总体而言，观察到的植物相关细菌与咖啡风味之间的复杂关系可能要求，旨在优化微生物群落以实现品质提升的举措需根据各个农场系统和当地条件进行调整。
