Cercosporiosis resistance in coffee germplasm collection Deila M. dos S. Botelho . Ma´rio L. V. de Resende . Vinı ´cius T. Andrade . Antoˆnio A. Pereira . Flavia R. A. Patricio . Pedro M. R. Junior . Claudio Ogoshi . Juliana C. de Rezende Received: 26 August 2016 / Accepted: 25 April 2017 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017 Abstract Cercosporiosis, or brown eye spot, is currently one of the main diseases of the coffee tree. It is caused by Cercospora coffeicola Berk. & Cooke. Nevertheless, genetic resistance to this disease has not yet been explored in any depth. Our objectives (a) were evaluate the response of 124 accessions from the germplasm collection of the Minas Gerais State (GC), Brazil, and eight commercial cultivars of C. arabica to cercosporiosis and (b) determine the best way to perform early progenies selections via con- trolled greenhouse experiments. Three controlled greenhouse experiments (1–3) were run in different seasons to determine the best way to proceed the selection. The seedlings were inoculated with a four isolates mixture obtained from different regions. The experimental data were analyzed individually (1–3), in a joint analysis, and as repetitions of a randomized complete block design. In each analysis we estimated genetic parameters and E-BLUP (empirical best linear unbiased predictor) genotypic values of the access. There was genetic variability to C. coffeicola resis- tance among the coffee tree accessions germplasm collection. Therefore, genetic improvements could be obtained by selection. Experimental repetitions in different seasons increase the selection efﬁciency and reliability of resistant genotypes with low D. M. dos S. Botelho  M. L. V. de Resende Departamento de Fitopatologia, Universidade Federal de Lavras -UFLA, Campus Universita´rio, P. O. Box 3037, Lavras, MG CEP 37200-000, Brazil V. T. Andrade Centro de Cafe´ ‘Alcides Carvalho’, Instituto Agronoˆmico de Campinas - IAC, Av. Theodureto de Almeida Camargo, 1500, P. O. Box 28, Campinas, SP CEP 13012-970, Brazil A. A. Pereira Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecua´ria de Minas Gerais- EPAMIG Sudeste, Vl Gianneti, 46, Vic¸osa, MG CEP 36570-000, Brazil F. R. A. Patricio Instituto Biologico, R. Raul Teixeira Penteado, Km 3.5 - Jardim das Palmeiras, Campinas, SP CEP 13092-543, Brazil P. M. R. Junior Embrapa Semia´rido, Rodovia BR-428, Km 152, s/n - Zona Rural, Petrolina, PE CEP 56302-970, Brazil C. Ogoshi Instituto Rio Grandense do Arroz-IRGA, Avenida Misso˜es, 342, Bairro Sa˜o Geraldo, Porto Alegre, RS CEP 90230-100, Brazil J. C. de Rezende (&) EPAMIG Sul, Campus Universita´rio UFLA, P. O. Box 176, Lavras, MG CEP 37200-000, Brazil e-mail: julianacr@epamig.uﬂa.br 123 Euphytica (2017) 213:117 DOI 10.1007/s10681-017-1901-9