{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,14]],"date-time":"2026-07-14T13:18:27Z","timestamp":1784035107045,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,14]],"date-time":"2026-07-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1783987200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Plant Sci."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    The genetic identity of coffee cultivars is fundamental to the specialty coffee sector, where premium prices are paid under the assumption that the purchased planting material corresponds to the declared variety. However, many producing countries lack the certification infrastructure necessary to guarantee this identity in their informal seed systems, exposing producers to undetected varietal non-conformity. In this study, we examine a case from a specialty coffee (\n                    <jats:italic>Coffea arabica<\/jats:italic>\n                    L.) farm in southern Ecuador where seeds labeled as Sidra (USD 100\/kg) and Gesha (USD 500\/kg) were purchased without genetic or phytosanitary certification. Using a combination of SSR-based DNA fingerprinting and quantitative morphological characterization, including plant architecture, leaf functional traits, and fruit characteristics, we documented varietal identity and assessed the discriminant capacity of morphological traits across the four resulting morphotypes. Using eleven microsatellite markers for SSR fingerprinting, we found that two of the four morphotypes did not match their declared commercial identity. One plant sold as Sidra was identified as compatible with Batian, a composite variety of Kenyan origin that is genetically unrelated to Ethiopian landraces. The plants acquired as Gesha corresponded to a pure Ethiopian landrace that is genetically similar to, but not identical to, the Panamanian Geisha reference accession T.02722. Only two morphotypes were confirmed as Sidra. Furthermore, the placement of Sidra within the Core Ethiopia genetic group is consistent with prior population-level analyses and with its likely status as a selected Ethiopian landrace rather than a variety of hybrid origin. Morphological linear discriminant analysis achieved 82.4% overall classification accuracy under leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV), with internode length dominating the first discriminant function (LD1\u00a0=\u00a066.6%). These results demonstrate that varietal nonconformity in the specialty coffee seed sector can extend to the inadvertent introduction of genetically unrelated material and underscore the urgent need for accessible seed certification.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpls.2026.1868034","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,14]],"date-time":"2026-07-14T12:39:13Z","timestamp":1784032753000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["What you plant may not be what you bought: morphological and genetic discordance in specialty Coffea arabica L. cultivars from Ecuador"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Mar\u00eda Fernanda","family":"Tapia-Armijos","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Ciencias Biol\u00f3gicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad T\u00e9cnica Particular de Loja","place":["Loja, Ecuador"]},{"name":"VINKA Coffee Farm and Lab","place":["Loja, Ecuador"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Elizabeth","family":"Gusm\u00e1n-Montalv\u00e1n","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Ciencias Biol\u00f3gicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad T\u00e9cnica Particular de Loja","place":["Loja, Ecuador"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Diego P.","family":"V\u00e9lez\u2010Mora","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Ciencias Biol\u00f3gicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad T\u00e9cnica Particular de Loja","place":["Loja, Ecuador"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carlos","family":"I\u00f1iguez-Armijos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Ciencias Biol\u00f3gicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad T\u00e9cnica Particular de Loja","place":["Loja, Ecuador"]},{"name":"VINKA Coffee Farm and Lab","place":["Loja, Ecuador"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"36","DOI":"10.1017\/s1431927607079652","article-title":"Image processing with imageJ","volume":"11","author":"Abramoff","year":"2004","journal-title":"Biophotonics Int."},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"990","DOI":"10.1186\/S12870-025-06768-4","article-title":"Genetic diversity of cultivated Gayo Arabica Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) based on morphological and microsatellite markers","volume":"25","author":"Andini","year":"2025","journal-title":"BMC Plant Biol."},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"894","DOI":"10.1007\/s00122-001-0798-8","article-title":"The origin of cultivated Coffea arabica L. varieties revealed by AFLP and SSR markers","volume":"104","author":"Anthony","year":"2002","journal-title":"Theor. 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