Wednesday, October 20, 2004 GDLN-Mexico, Instituto Politecnico Nacional (IPN), will hold the Global Dialogue "Latin American Discovery: Brazilian achievement, sequencing of the Arabic coffee genome"at the Brasil (Brasilia, Sao Paulo), Ecuador, Nicaragua and Mexico IPN sites, from 1 pm to 3 pm Washington time. #AMS 04-1679.

The objective of the dialogue is to broadcast the most important results of the science and technology developed in Latin America. Brazilian scientists from over 20 laboratories attached to the "Fundación de Amparo a la Investigación del Estado de Sao Paulo (Fapesp)" and the "Centro de Recursos Genéticos de la Empresa Brasileña de Investigación Agropecuaria (Embrapa)" finished the first step towards the knowledge of the Arabic coffee genome, identifying 200 thousand ADN sequences of the coffee bean, the biggest gene data bank in the world, five times the 40 thousand codified by research centers in the United States of America and France.

The next step for the Brazilian biotechnologists will be the study of the formation of the coffee specie and the function of each of the genes identified to allow, through modifications, the development of varieties more resistant to plagues, illnesses, cold and drought; as well as the improvement of production and quality of the Arabic coffee at a low cost.