By Perry Luckett, CoffeeMan1

With increased emphasis on genetic research emerging from the world’s fight against Covid-19, most of us have watched with keen interest the rapid development of vaccines and other medical treatments through knowledge of the human genome. By mapping this genome, scientists now know the complete set of genetic material (DNA) in human cells and use that understanding to diagnose and treat many formerly fatal or debilitating diseases.

For future visits to a physician patients may provide a saliva sample for genetic testing and receive personalized healthcare advice based on their DNA, environment, diet, and lifestyle. The test would measure a person’s risk of inheritable diseases and predict how well a treatment would work. Although this might seem like science fiction, advances in genomics including reduced costs of DNA sequencing have made this possible. It’s called personalized medicine, and it’s a paradigm shift in healthcare.

All well and good, you’re probably thinking, but what the heck does THAT have to do with coffee and especially with my enjoying a favorite brew? Would you believe similar genetic discoveries about coffee, caffeine, and other properties are influencing studies on how to improve coffee production and cup quality worldwide?

How do genetic studies on coffee create a cozy cup for me?

Genetic studies of coffee and tea plants have accelerated over the past decade because many plants are under threat from climate change and diseases. With current varieties dying widely from these threats, we coffee drinkers will need to depend on ways of strengthening the plants’ survivability to keep our caffeine buzz going.

Sequencing of robusta coffee was the first breakthrough

In 2014 France Denoeud and others sequenced the Coffea canephora (robusta coffee) genome. By determining all of the genes that make up robusta coffee, a plant variety that accounts for about one-third of the world's consumption, they opened the door to better breeding practices and even genetic engineering. They found caffeine genes have duplicated in tandem and have conserved this gene sequence in plant cells, so caffeine genes could expand their numbers within this species. Scientists have seen similar but independent expansions in distantly related species of tea and cacao, suggesting caffeine may have helped robusta coffee adapt and evolve over time. [FD]

We don’t know for sure why these coffee plants needed caffeine to thrive. It may have fought against leaf-eating bugs, made soil around the coffee plants more toxic to rival seedlings, or attracted pollinators that helped them reproduce. Whatever the reason, plants such as tea, coffee, and chocolate developed enzymes to make the addicting and sometimes toxic compound. In fact, these three plants found their way to caffeination independently of each other, so caffeine was a valuable enough trait to inspire different kinds of adaptation. [RF] [SN]

Sequencing of arabica coffee took a little longer

In 2017 an international team of researchers led by University of California, Davis, geneticists released the first public genome sequence of Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica). This research is particularly valuable because arabica coffee is the source of specialty varieties moist enjoyed by discerning coffee drinkers like you. Co-author of this study, Dr. Juan Medrano, explains that Coffee arabica has a more complex genetic sequence than robusta but still has depended strongly on caffeine to help it evolve and thrive. [PB]

The team collected genetic material from the Geisha variety of arabica coffee trees because of its aromatic qualities and its hardiness. It has recently been grown near Santa Barbara, California, 19 degrees latitude north of any other plantation. By sequencing this variety’s genome, the UC-Davis team has produced the information needed to develop high-quality, disease-resistant coffee varieties that can adapt to climate changes expected to threaten global coffee production in the next three decades.

The team’s results will eventually benefit coffee farmers whose livelihoods are threatened by diseases like coffee leaf rust, as well as coffee processors and consumers around the world. Going forward, the authors will focus on identifying genes and molecular pathways associated with coffee quality, in hopes that these will provide a better understanding of the flavor profiles of Geisha coffee. [SN]

Genetic research could also produce decaffeinated coffee beans

Are you one who has a cozy fondness for the lighter brew? Interestingly, work by geneticists on coffee's caffeine-producing enzymes could also benefit the many decaf coffee drinkers on our planet. Bioengineering could stop caffeine production in various coffee plants, which means coffee producers would no longer need to extract caffeine in order to produce decaf coffee. Farmers could just grow coffee beans that don't make it at all. [SN] Two research teams have been working on this idea for years and are approaching workable solutions. Alan Crozier, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Glasgow, points out that the processes used to remove caffeine also remove many of the compounds that give coffee its flavor. They also add 25 cents to a dollar to its cost. [MH]

Crozier's alternative to dishwater decaf is genetically engineered coffee beans that don't make caffeine. Crozier and colleagues from Ochanomizu University in Tokyo announced in the science journal Nature that they had isolated a gene involved in making caffeine in coffee beans and tea leaves. Well-proven technology could easily knock the gene out, which would enable growing of decaffeinated coffee beans. Crozier and his team need commercial-level funding to pursue this research.

Another group may well beat Crozier’s team to this goal. A privately held, six-person Hawaii startup called Integrated Coffee Technologies was founded in 1995 by University of Hawaii at Manoa professor John Stiles after he discovered another caffeine gene. The company gets its money from individual investors, who have funded the genetically modified coffee plants growing in its greenhouse.

Professor Stiles thinks his approach may be better than Crozier's. Coffee plants follow a four-step recipe to make caffeine from another molecule normally present in the bean. Crozier's gene blocking will stop this process when the recipe is almost finished, so a molecule not normally present in coffee beans takes caffeine's place. By contrast, Stiles says, the gene Integrated Coffee Technologies is using will stop the recipe before it begins, which means no strange chemicals will enter the plants. [MH]

Both these techniques would likely focus on specialty coffee, rather than mass producers such as Nestle, Folgers, or Maxwell House. Because taste is much more important in the specialty market, a better-tasting decaf may find its foothold there. In fact, specialty-coffee giant Starbucks has been following this technology for years. They say they’d buy the engineered decaffeinated coffee if it measures up to their quality standards and their customers like it. [MH]

What if we drop the coffee beans and cover production by growing cells?

Although this idea may sound like science fiction, last year we learned it’s now science fact—at least in limited applications. In September 2021 Dr. Heiko Rischer, principal scientist and research team leader of plant biotechnology at state-owned VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, told Daily Coffee News that they had transformed arabica coffee cells into something resembling a coffee drink. The team started with cells derived from a Coffea arabica specimen , whose origin hadn’t been recorded, to serve as a model. [HB]

At the research center, scientists established coffee cell cultures in a laboratory and transferred those to bioreactors (vessels for growing organisms under controlled conditions) that generated more coffee material. After analyzing this material, they spread it on a tray and roasted it in an oven to brew cups of coffee for evaluation by a trained panel.

These panel members found the lab-derived cups were similar to “ordinary coffee” but could use improvement. As Dr. Rischer said, they tried different roasts in the lab and liked dark roasts better for flavor, but they were looking for expert roasters to help take the bioengineered coffee to the next level. [HB]

When they announced the breakthrough, VTT said getting all regulatory approvals from the United States and Europe while moving from the lab to commercial mass production might be attainable within four years. Bioreactors are operating now that produce plant cell cultures up to 100,000 liters, so lab-derived coffee eventually could serve as a raw material for roasted coffee-like products that might substitute for low-grade flavored or even conventional coffee. If you’re a fan of specialty coffee, however, you’ll be glad to know post-harvest processing and roasting are likely to remain in the hands of farmers. [HB]

Dr. Rischer believes lab coffee could replace mass production of farmed coffee, which often exploits local communities and harms the environment. Instead, farmers and local processors could build on demand for local specialties by concentrating on quality and getting fair prices in return. [HB] These changes could be a great advantage for coffee growers and consumers alike.

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Resources

Pat Bailey, “Arabica Coffee Genome Sequenced,” http://bit.ly/3VxEDGG , UC-Davis, January 13, 2017. [PB]

Howard Bryman, “Finnish Scientists Successfully Transform Plant Cells into Coffee-Like Drink,” http://bit.ly/3XCiLf2 , Roast Magazine, September 15, 2021. [HB]

France Denoeud, et. al., “The coffee genome provides insight into the convergent evolution of caffeine biosynthesis,” Science, 5 Sep 2014, Vol 345, Issue 6201, pp. 1181-1184, as reported at http://bit.ly/3u4cZVU .  [FD]

Rachel Feltman, “Genetically modified coffee could be just around the corner,” http://bit.ly/3GTMREZ , September 4, 2014. [RF]

Matthew Herper, “Researchers Engineer Decaf Coffee Beans,” http://bit.ly/3Ey6ZcQ , September 12, 2000. [MH]

M. K. Mishra and A. Slater, “Recent Advances in the Genetic Transformation of Coffee,” Biotechnology Research International 2012: 580857, published online at http://bit.ly/3U6t2wV , August 29, 2012. [MS]

News Staff, “Researchers Sequence Genome of Arabica Coffee,” http://bit.ly/3u6ctGZ , SciNews, January 17, 2017. [SN]