Geleta Dugassa Barka

Disclosure We confirm that the manuscript has been read and approved by all named authors and that there are no other persons who satisfied the criteria for authorship but are not listed. We further confirm that the order of authors listed in the manuscript has been approved by all of us. Conflicts of Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Data Availability Statement The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

1. Introduction Arabica coffee (C. arabica L.) is one of the most highly traded agricultural commodities in the world and has been genetically improved over the years to satisfy market demands. However, the narrow genetic base resulting from the recent species origin and historical dispersion associated with autogamy restricts genetic gain in breeding programs [1,2,3,4,5,6]. In addition to the difficulty associated with obtaining improved cultivars, the incidence of diseases caused by the fungi H.