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Copyright of Revista Colombiana de Biotecnología is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The objective of this review work was to present the state of the art of methodologies and advances in coffee genetic improvement over time. Coffee (Coffe sp.) Is a highly valued crop for its consumption as a beverage. There are about 130 species of coffee, and the most cultivated are: Coffe arabica, C. canephora and C. liberica. The different levels of ploidy in the genus Coffea hinder the introduction of agronomic and quality characteristics from diploid species to tetraploid species. Therefore, the genetic improvement of coffee based on conventional methodologies is a long and tedious process, which can last up to more than 30 years. However, in recent decades biotechnological techniques have been developed that may well contribute to introducing the desired characteristics and accelerating genetic improvement processes. These methods are described in this article, to finally discuss the challenges and prospects for improvement. coffee genetics in the South of Manabí. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve vanilla production processes, isolation and protoplast fusion of V. planifolia Jacks. Ex Andrews and V. pompona Schiede was proposed. In this process of improvement is expected to obtain potentially fusarium tolerant hybrids to which V. planifolia are highly susceptible. For the isolation of protoplasts, from in vitro leaf plantlets, three enzymes (cellulase-C, pectinase-P and Driselase-D), were combined and evaluated in three different treatments-T: T1 (1% C + 1% P), T2 (2% C + 1% P) and T3 (2% C + P 1% + 1% D). Variables such as number of isolated protoplasts and viability were assessed. Prior to chemical hybrids induction with polyethylene glycol-PEG (4% w/v), V. pompona protoplasts were stained with tetrazolium salts (1%), to identify the protoplasts fusions with the unstained V. planifolia. As a result of the enzymatic treatments, the best for V. planifolia was observed in the T1 treatment; and the best for V. pompona in T2; with the following percentages of viable protoplasts: for V. planifolia 80.32%, and for V. pompona 81.27%. Regarding protoplast fusion, in the treatment with 4% PEG, 15.6% of hybrid cells were obtained, corresponding to 3.16 × 105 fused protoplasts. This indicates the great potential of the protoplast isolation process and production of hybrid cells of the genus Vanilla for varietal crop improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]