Résumé
Coffee is a perennial crop considered one of the most important agricultural commodities in the world. By consequence, aiming at the establishment of tools to help accelerating the genetic improvement of this species, significant advances in coffee genomics have occurred in recent years. As an example, one can cite the recent completion of the complete genome sequencing of Coffea canephora, which will serve as a reference sequence for use in advanced molecular genetics, applied directly to the genetic improvement of this species, such as the establishment of genome-wide selection programs (GWS) in coffee. Recent bioinformatics analyses of complete plant genomes indicate that about 20-30% of the total complete set of genes is novel and specific to each species. That is, these genomic sequences do not exhibit any similarity with those already deposited in global databases and are commonly called "no hits". Recent concepts, called these "no hits" as "orphan genes" and postulate that the emergence of these are the result of adaptive responses specific to each species as a function of stresses and adverse conditions faced by these plants during the evolutionary process. Our work is focused on the identification and functional characterization of orphan genes from coffee, which may have a high potential for innovation and biotechnological applications. This study presents data obtained for some of orphan genes, called CcUnk (Unknown), previously identified in the coffee genome with special focus on CcUnk genes potentially involved in abiotic and biotic-stress responses. Work supported by CAPES-COFECUB, Consórcio Pesquisa Café and INCT-Café (CNPq/FAPEMIG). (Texte intégral)