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Growing coffee beans without the caffeine Farmers might be able to grow decaffeinated coffee beans instead of removing the caffeine chemically, according to Japanese scientists [Nature, 423, 823 (2003)]. Coffee plants use three different methyltransferase enzymes to biosynthesize caffeine from xanthosine. A team led by Hiroshi Sano, professor of plant molecular breeding at Japan's Nara Institute of Science & Technology, has used a technique called RNA interference to block production of one of these enzymes in Coffea canephora, one of the most popular species of coffee plants. The team introduced short RNA strands capable of shutting down synthesis of the enzyme by interfering with its messenger RNA. The modified coffee seedlings contain 50 to 70% less caffeine than unmodified ones. Although the team won't know for sure until the seedlings mature and produce beans, the transgenic beans are likely to contain low caffeine levels. Caffeine is usually removed by extraction, but "the process is expensive and the flavor of the product is poor--problems that could potentially be overcome by the genetic engineering of coffee plants," the authors write. |
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