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Updated: Apr 24, 2026

Caffeine Extraction, Enzymatic Activity and Gene Expression of Caffeine Synthase from Plant Cell Suspensions
Published on: October 2, 2018
The coffee genome provides insight into the convergent evolution of caffeine biosynthesis
France Denoeud1, Lorenzo Carretero-Paulet2, Alexis Dereeper3
1Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Genoscope, Institut de Génomique, BP5706, 91057 Evry, France. CNRS, UMR 8030, CP5706, Evry, France. Université d'Evry, UMR 8030, CP5706, Evry, France.
Abstract:
Coffee is a valuable beverage crop due to its characteristic flavor, aroma, and the stimulating effects of caffeine. We generated a high-quality draft genome of the species Coffea canephora, which displays a conserved chromosomal gene order among asterid angiosperms. Although it shows no sign of the whole-genome triplication identified in Solanaceae species such as tomato, the genome includes several species-specific gene family expansions, among them N-methyltransferases (NMTs) involved in caffeine production, defense-related genes, and alkaloid and flavonoid enzymes involved in secondary compound synthesis. Comparative analyses of caffeine NMTs demonstrate that these genes expanded through sequential tandem duplications independently of genes from cacao and tea, suggesting that caffeine in eudicots is of polyphyletic origin.
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