Scientists have unlocked the genome, or the gene material that
makes coffee what it is.
After water, coffee is the
second most consumed beverage and the second most traded commodity after
petroleum. One of three of the 2.25 billion cups of coffee consumed worldwide
each day comes from Robusta (Coffea canephora); almost all the rest comes from
its relative, the Arabica. That makes coffee one of the world's most important
crops, cultivated in more than 11 million hectares in 70 countries and exported
by 60 nations.
Coffee is highly valuable
because of its flavor, aroma and caffeine, the stimulant that it produces.
“We generated a high-quality
draft genome of the species Coffea canephora,” said lead author France Denoeud
of the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, Genoscope, Institut de Génomique and
the Université d’Evry in France.
The study found that coffee
chromosomal regions show unique one-to-one correspondences with grapevine
chromosomes and a one-to-three correspondence with the tomato genome.
Caffeine is synthesized in
both coffee leaves, where it has insecticidal properties, and in the fruits and
seeds, where it inhibits seed germination of competing species.
Linoleic acid is the major
polyunsaturated fatty acid in the coffee bean where it contributes to aroma
composition and flavor which lingers after roasting.
According to the Editor's
Summary, scientists have seen similar but independent expansions in distantly
related species of tea and cacao, suggesting that caffeine might have played an
adaptive role in coffee evolution.
The study—“The coffee genome
provides insight into the convergent evolution of caffeine biosynthesis”—is published
online in the September issue of the Journal Science.
Studying the genes behind
coffee's flavors and aromas may enable scientists—through selective breeding or
genetic engineering—to breed coffee with enhanced characteristics, according to
smithsonia.com.
“Our study highlighted genes
that make alkaloid compounds, which are known bitter flavors,” it quotes the
study's co-author, Victor Albert, a plant evolutionary biologist at the
University of Buffalo. “We found another group of enriched enzymes that make
flavonoid compounds, which are another taste element. We also highlighted the
genes involved in fatty acid pathways, so we've identified many different
genetic aspects of aroma and flavor.”
“There's a big research area
in designer enzyme chemistry, where people modify enzyme groups in small ways
for them to take on completely new functions,” Albert says. “That kind of designer
chemistry was accomplished accidentally by caffeine-producing plants in
nature.”
The Department of
Agriculture’s Bureau of Agricultural Statistics puts local coffee production at
96,433 metric tons. The Philippines lies in a narrow area in the world called
the coffee belt, making it one of the few countries that can grow four
varieties of coffee: Arabica, Excelsa, Liberica and Robusta. (SciencePhilippines)
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