Résumé
The genus Coffea has recently undergone a new delimitation of its species raising new questions about the evolutionary history of genomes and speciation mechanisms. One of the characteristics of the genus Coffea is the high conservation of chromosome structure and organization established by cytogenetic approaches, excluding Coffea arabica, the only allotetraploid species of the genus. Although this conservation has long argued for a “single” genome for the genus, advances in analysis suggest fine-grained variation between species such as variation in genome size, number of secondary constrictions, number and physical location of rDNA loci, and repetitive elements. The ongoing massive sequencing of genomes in the genus indicates the important role of transposable element activity in chromosome organization, genome size variation, and divergence processes accompanying species speciation at the genus level.