Coffee is one of the most valuable agricultural commodities and the plants’
leaves are the primary site of infection for most coffee diseases, such as the
devastating coffee leaf rust. Therefore, the use of bacterial microbiota that
inhabits coffee leaves to fight infections could be an alternative agricultural
method to protect against coffee diseases. Here, we report the leaf-associated
bacteria in three coffee genotypes over the course of a year, with the aim to
determine the diversity of bacterial microbiota. The results indicate a
prevalence of Enterobacteriales in Coffea canephora,
Pseudomonadales in C. arabica ‘Obatã’, and an intriguing lack
of bacterial dominance in C. arabica ‘Catuaí’. Using PERMANOVA
analyses, we assessed the association between bacterial abundance in the coffee
genotypes and environmental parameters such as temperature, precipitation, and
mineral nutrients in the leaves. We detected a close relationship between the
amount of Mn and the abundance of Pseudomonadales in ‘Obatã’ and the amount of
Ca and the abundance of Enterobacteriales in C. canephora. We
suggest that mineral nutrients can be key drivers that shape leaf microbial
communities.
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