Dr Lashermes is Director of Research at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), France. He co-led the international initiative that sequenced the coffee genome, and has published extensively on coffee genetics. Dr Lashermes is Director of Research at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), France. He co-led the international initiative that sequenced the coffee genome, and has published extensively on coffee genetics. Dr. Fabio M. DaMatta is Professor of Plant Physiology in the Plant Biology Department at the Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil. Dr. DaMatta is the author or co-author of more than 100 research articles and book chapters, most of which address the ecophysiology of the coffee tree. He served as a member of the Editorial Review Board of Tree Physiology (2004-2005) and was both the Editor-in-Chief of the Brazilian Journal of Plant Physiology (2006-2008) and the International Coordinator and Consulting Editor of the Advances in Plant Physiology series (Scientific Publishers). He is currently a consulting member of the Brazilian Consortium for Coffee Research and Development as well as other scientific agencies in the Brazilian government and abroad. Dr. DaMatta serves as an Associate Editor of Theoretical and Experimental Plant Physiology.