The love of coffee is in my DNA
European scientists have found the "coffee mania gene" in the DNA of Italians
Geneticists from Europe have found out that variations in the PDSS2 gene control how our body processes caffeine, and thus determine how much a person is inclined to drink coffee, according to an article published in the journal Scientific Reports.
"The results of our study, as well as data from other experiments, show that our craving for coffee can be caused at the genetic level. Now we need to conduct more large–scale experiments in order to confirm this discovery and uncover the link between the PDSS2 gene and coffee consumption," said Nicola Pirastu from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland).
Pirastu and his colleagues discovered a potential "gene for coffee mania" by comparing the DNA structure of more than a thousand people living in seven relatively isolated and small villages in the south and northeast of Italy.
Before scientists took blood samples for genome analysis, they asked the residents of these villages how often they drink coffee and whether they drink this drink every day. Studying sets of small mutations in avid coffee drinkers and people who do not drink coffee, geneticists tried to understand what variations in genes may be associated with an unexplained craving for this drink.
According to scientists, they managed to find two dozen small mutations with a length of one "letter"-a nucleotide, which somehow influenced how much a person was inclined to drink coffee. All these mutations, as further analysis showed, were on the sixth chromosome, inside the PDSS2 gene, and some of them made quite noticeable changes in the "coffee drinking" of their carriers, forcing them to drink a cup more coffee a day than people without such options do.
This gene, according to Pirast and his colleagues, is responsible for the production of the enzyme Q10, which is one of the most important links in the cellular respiration system and the conversion of nutrients into the "energy currency" of life, ATP molecules.
This gene and the Q10 enzyme itself, scientists explain, are associated with the oxidation of caffeine and its metabolism, and small mutations in the structure of PDSS2 can enhance the process of removing this substance from the body. For this reason, the "typos" in PDSS2 determine how much coffee a person needs to drink in order to feel its invigorating effect, and how long it will work.
Having discovered this dependence among the inhabitants of Italian villages, the authors of the article checked whether it really exists by analyzing variations in the structure of PDSS2 in several thousand Dutch residents. Repeated analysis showed that the relationship between the PDSS2 device and coffee consumption does exist for at least five of the 21 mutations found in Italy.
As the researchers emphasize, PDSS2 is not the only gene that is associated with coffee addiction, however, scientists suggest that it controls the behavior of other DNA sites that were previously associated with coffee addiction. They plan to test this hypothesis in the course of further experiments.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru