Living Off Nothing But Coffee

Can you imagine living off nothing but coffee? Some of us probably feel like we do at times, if not for the taste then for the buzz the caffeine brings. Caffeine makes us feel more alert because it structurally resembles a molecule called adenosine.

Caffeine and adenosine are like brothers from another mother.

 Adenosine accumulates in our brain the longer we stay awake, binding to its receptors to induce that sleepy feeling we all get after a long day. It is the body’s way of signaling to the brain that it has had enough and needs to shut down for a while. If you disagree with your body, the ingestion of caffeine can help. Due to their structural similarity, caffeine competes with adenosine for binding to adenosine receptors; however, adenosine receptors do not execute the signal to shut down when bound to caffeine. In other words, the body is trying to throw a pass to sleep but caffeine blocks the receiver.

Some people can’t get to their happy place without a cup of joe in the morning. By the way, the term “cup of joe” is likely to have originated from “cup of jamoke” - “jamoke” being a combination of locales noted for their coffee goodness, “Java” and “Mocha”.

But that’s not all. Caffeine also ramps up adrenaline production, which increases your heart and breathing rates, and primes your brain and muscles for action. You feel a boost from coffee because the caffeine blocks the signal to sleep and fools your body into thinking it is under attack.

 

Like other drugs, people can build up a tolerance to caffeine, requiring more and more of the drug just to achieve the sensation of that original buzz. And the road to addiction is a short one, indeed. People love their coffee so much that the threat of a shortage can send them into a panic, which is perfectly captured in this scene from Airplane II.

 

How much coffee can people safely consume? According to the FDA, 400 mg (4 cups of brewed coffee) per day appears to be safe for most healthy adults. While it is estimated to take about 140 cups (8 oz size) of coffee to kill, you can get there a lot quicker with pure caffeine powder. A single tablespoon can be lethal, prompting the FDA to issue this warning to consumers.

But there is a creature on Earth that can tolerate much, much more. In fact, it eats coffee beans for breakfast. And lunch. And dinner. And everything in-between. Amazingly, the coffee berry borer eats nothing but coffee beans!

The coffee berry borer is a small but devastating beetle that lays waste to coffee crops. It subsists solely on coffee, capable of drinking any Starbucks junkie under the table.

Scientists have recently discovered how the coffee berry pest can tolerate toxic levels of caffeine. Do they possess a special gene that can detoxify caffeine? Do they have receptors that don’t bind caffeine? No…evidently, the answer does not lie in the genome of the beetle, but in its gut.

 

Like most other living creatures, the coffee berry borer houses a microbiome in its intestinal system. Several species of bacteria, such as Pseudomonas fulva, that reside in the gut of coffee berry borers are wizards at breaking down caffeine. The gut bacteria from coffee berry borers found around the world were put into culture medium containing caffeine as the primary nutrient so researchers could identify which species grew the best in this condition. P. fulva was the most common; subsequently, this bacterial species was found to carry a gene known to degrade caffeine.

To further test this hypothesis, researchers gave the beetles antibiotics to deplete their intestinal microbiome. Beetles without their gut bacteria lost the ability to break down caffeine. When fed some P. fulva before their coffee bean diet, the beetles excreted no caffeine, indicating that they were able to detoxify it once again.

Assuming no adverse effects, ingestion of P. fulva might help humans break down caffeine. A better alternative to decaf?

The scientists speculate that altering the beetle’s microbiome might provide a new approach in the battle against this pest. However, antibiotics are a precious commodity in treating human disease, so this could be a reckless idea as the introduction of antibiotics into the field has the potential of generating resistant bacteria.

From an evolutionary perspective, the study serves as an example of how organisms can adapt to a new niche without genetic modification. By acquiring specific types of bacterial symbionts, the coffee berry borer is uniquely able to live off nothing but coffee.

In the video below, you can learn more about this research and similar studies being performed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory:
 

 

Contributed by:  Bill Sullivan

Follow Bill on Twitter.

See the news release at ScienceDaily.
 

Ceja-Navarro, J., Vega, F., Karaoz, U., Hao, Z., Jenkins, S., Lim, H., Kosina, P., Infante, F., Northen, T., & Brodie, E. (2015). Gut microbiota mediate caffeine detoxification in the primary insect pest of coffee Nature Communications, 6 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8618

And I Keep Hitting Re-peat-peat-peat-peat-peat-peat

We all do it…whether it is driving the same route to work every morning regardless of how much traffic is present, picking up your afternoon coffee/tea/soda even though you know you will need to pee on the drive home, or stopping by McDonalds for a quick bite even though the food is awful. We all have bad habits. Sometimes these habits are much easier to spot from the outside. For instance, who hasn’t questioned Selena Gomez’s habitual boyfriend choice of Justin Bieber? From the outside it seems so obvious…just quit him or it: whatever it is. But it must be more difficult than it sounds, I mean why else am I drinking my afternoon tea as I write this?

That pretty much sums it all up. I keep hittin’ re-peat-peat-peat-peat-peat-peat.

Habits, good or bad, are behaviors that have become automated. They are activities that were once goal-oriented that now occur in response to a stimulus, activities that we do without really thinking about outcomes. For example, I would get thirsty in the middle of the day after eating lunch, which led me to consciously get a drink in the afternoon. Now getting an afternoon drink has become routine – a habit. Regardless of whether I am thirsty or not, I grab a drink in the afternoon. This has become problematic as I am attempting to be healthier and drinking more water in the morning; hence my problem when I drive home.

The exact mechanisms by which a goal-oriented activity becomes a habit are not well understood. Recent studies have demonstrated a shift in brain activity: while goal-oriented, conscious activity stimulates the prefrontal cortex (the place in the brain where decisions are made), habits are traced to the basal ganglia, which plays a role in emotions, voluntary motor movements, and certain types of learning (Graybiel, 2008; Yin and Knowlton, 2006).

Well, maybe I should just grab a smaller tea, one that isn’t larger than my stomach…

So, why do we form habits? Since habits are generally formed from goal-oriented activities, we receive a reward when we perform these behaviors. For example, drinking tea quenches thirst. This reinforces the thought process in our brains leading to habit formation. But then one has to wonder: why do we maintain bad habits that don’t stimulate reward anymore?

Most of these habits, like smoking or eating junk food, once came with a reward – perhaps the idea of looking cool or a quick way to stifle hunger, respectively. Regardless of whether it may be harmful or whether your opinion changes about what is cool, once the habit is formed it is very difficult to break.

Another explanation for persistent bad habits is the concept called “sunk cost fallacy”. Sunk cost fallacy is the idea that once you have invested in something you are compelled to see it through, even if the benefit remains elusive. For example, how many of us have eaten to the point of bursting our jeans at an all-you-can-eat buffet? I know I have (it’s all you can eat, not eat all you can!). We feel we have to get the most bang for our buck, even if it means we’ll be spending more money to buy antacids later. The same concept holds true for some habits - it may be difficult to stop a habit once you have invested in that behavior. I know I will continue drinking this tea because I already bought it. Selena Gomez may feel she has already invested so much in Justin Bieber that it doesn’t seem right to just give him up.

Interestingly, studies have shown that other animals, including pigeons, are also affected by the sunk cost fallacy (White and Magalhaes, 2015). In this study, pigeons were given a reward (food) after pecking a button a few times. The scientists then introduced a second button and varied how many pecks it took to receive food, one requiring only a few pecks and the other requiring up to 30. Pigeons were more likely to stick with whichever button they initially chose, regardless of how many pecks it took to get the food. In other words, after investing in an option that works, pigeons were less likely to change course and expend energy exploring other options. So maybe we can blame our inability to break bad habits on ancient evolutionary echoes of our animal instincts?

 

Scientists have shown pigeons also fall prey to "sunk cost fallacy", providing a fertile ground for bad habits to take root.

 

Habits are routines; they are triggered by a reoccurring stimulus. So how do we break them? It is difficult to break habits because you perform them without thinking. Simply being aware of what triggers your habit will help you break it (Quinn et al., 2010). So next time you find yourself stopping at McDonalds or grabbing that unhealthy snack, think about what just happened. What triggered your desire? Force your brain not to take the short cut or easy way out, but to think objectively about your choice and the ensuing outcomes.

 

Studies have also indicated that the best time to break a habit is when you go on vacation because you are changing up your routine - you won’t have the same stimulus or trigger provoking your habit (Gross, 2012). So I guess to break my afternoon tea habit I should take a week and go to Hawaii…yeah, I like the sound of that.

 

This is where I will be until I break my tea habit. I kind of hope it takes awhile.

 

Contributed by: Sarah Deffit

 

Graybiel AM (2008). Habits, rituals, and the evaluative brain. Annual review of neuroscience, 31, 359-87 PMID: 18558860

Quinn JM, Pascoe A, Wood W, & Neal DT (2010). Can't control yourself? Monitor those bad habits. Personality & social psychology bulletin, 36 (4), 499-511 PMID: 20363904

White KG, & Magalhães P (2015). The sunk cost effect in pigeons and people: a case of within-trials contrast? Behavioural processes, 112, 22-8 PMID: 25305066

Yin HH, & Knowlton BJ (2006). The role of the basal ganglia in habit formation. Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 7 (6), 464-76 PMID: 16715055

Gross, T. Habits: How They Form And How To Break Them. NPR (2012). http://www.npr.org/2012/03/05/147192599/habits-how-they-form-and-how-to-break-them

The Friday Five

Highlighting some of the coolest science news we’ve seen lately.

1. The coffee plant (Coffea canephora) genome has finally been sequenced! Interestingly, the study revealed that the enzymes synthesizing caffeine evidently arose independently from others found in tea and cacao. The question that remains:  how many cups of coffee were required to get the data? Learn more, including why some plants make caffeine, in Carl Zimmer’s article. It took millions of years for plants to evolve the ability to manufacture caffeine, so it is no wonder we freak out when there’s no coffee:

 

2. Scientists were able to correct the genetic aberration in mice that causes muscular dystrophy using a new type of genome editing technique called CRISPR/Cas9. In the future, this strategy may be used to correct disease-causing mutations in the muscle tissue of humans. Learn more about CRISPR/Cas9 in the video below.

3. More big medical breakthroughs: one of the most promising medications for melanoma was fast-tracked by the FDA last week.

4. This doesn’t happen every day! Check out this live volcanic eruption and sonic boom of Mount Tarvurvur located in Papua New Guinea.

5. In a previous Friday Five, we highlighted a study on how to make the perfect pizza. So how about a little perfect dessert to go with that perfect pizza? Read on to discover the science behind the best chocolate chip cookie for you.

 

 

BONUS!

We recently wrote about species having names inspired by celebrities. Now we have a new one to add to the list. “A swamp-dwelling, plant-munching creature that lived 19 million years ago in Africa has been named after Rolling Stones lead singer Sir Mick Jagger, because of its big, sensitive lips and snout. The name of the animal, Jaggermeryx naida, translates to 'Jagger's water nymph.'”

Science quote of the week:

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” –Isaac Asimov

 

Contributed by:  Bill Sullivan

Follow Bill on Twitter: @wjsullivan

Denoeud, F., Carretero-Paulet, L., Dereeper, A., Droc, G., Guyot, R., Pietrella, M., Zheng, C., Alberti, A., Anthony, F., Aprea, G., Aury, J., Bento, P., Bernard, M., Bocs, S., Campa, C., Cenci, A., Combes, M., Crouzillat, D., Da Silva, C., Daddiego, L., De Bellis, F., Dussert, S., Garsmeur, O., Gayraud, T., Guignon, V., Jahn, K., Jamilloux, V., Joet, T., Labadie, K., Lan, T., Leclercq, J., Lepelley, M., Leroy, T., Li, L., Librado, P., Lopez, L., Munoz, A., Noel, B., Pallavicini, A., Perrotta, G., Poncet, V., Pot, D., Priyono, ., Rigoreau, M., Rouard, M., Rozas, J., Tranchant-Dubreuil, C., VanBuren, R., Zhang, Q., Andrade, A., Argout, X., Bertrand, B., de Kochko, A., Graziosi, G., Henry, R., Jayarama, ., Ming, R., Nagai, C., Rounsley, S., Sankoff, D., Giuliano, G., Albert, V., Wincker, P., & Lashermes, P. (2014). The coffee genome provides insight into the convergent evolution of caffeine biosynthesis Science, 345 (6201), 1181-1184 DOI: 10.1126/science.1255274

Long, C., McAnally, J., Shelton, J., Mireault, A., Bassel-Duby, R., & Olson, E. (2014). Prevention of muscular dystrophy in mice by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated editing of germline DNA Science, 345 (6201), 1184-1188 DOI: 10.1126/science.1254445

The Friday Five

Highlighting some of the coolest science news we’ve seen lately.

1. The mystery behind Death Valley's 'Wandering Stones' appears to have finally been solved. For decades scientists have debated why hundreds of rocks move across Racetrack Playa, leaving trails behind them. Read this and/or watch the video below to see how this happens.

2. We’ve recently covered some of the things that alcohol does to your brain in this post. Here is a short video that not only addresses the question, “Does alcohol kill brain cells?”, but also explains where this notion originated. Cheers!

3. Now that we know what alcohol does, how about coffee? What does coffee do to the brain? AsapSCIENCE is here to explain in this short video.

4. Economist Richard Reeves uses Legos to demonstrate the chances of upward mobility in America.

5. Richard Feynman’s famous lectures are now available for free here. Go learn some physics from the master who had a knack for making complex principles understandable and entertaining.

Science quote of the week:

“Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.” –Adam Smith

Contributed by:  Bill Sullivan

Follow Bill on Twitter: @wjsullivan

Norris, R., Norris, J., Lorenz, R., Ray, J., & Jackson, B. (2014). Sliding Rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: First Observation of Rocks in Motion PLoS ONE, 9 (8) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0105948

The Friday Five

Highlighting some of the coolest science news we’ve seen lately.

1. Big news in regenerative medicine this week: scientists have grown the first working organ in a lab (a functional thymus was generated from reprogrammed fibroblast cells).

2. It sounds fishy, but zebrafish are helping scientists study potential mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease.

Zebrafish are excellent model systems that help scientists learn about development and disease

3. Another interesting development for Alzheimer’s disease this week. Studies have revealed that infusing the blood of young mice into older mice reverses some of the aging process. Physicians will soon be testing if blood plasma from people under 30 can alleviate the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

Sorry, Barnabas, but drinking the blood does not work.

4. Better science, better pizza. Scientists set out to “quantify the pizza baking properties and performance of different cheeses”, and the results are described here. Have they found the perfect combination of cheeses? I look forward to trying…

5. Time for a coffee break? No doubt you are familiar with the trademark “coffee ring” that results from spilled coffee, which decorated many of the journal articles I read back when we used to print them out. Based on this study, the video below shows coffee particles in action, forming that characteristic ring.

Science quote of the week:

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less” --Marie Curie

Contributed by:  Bill Sullivan

Follow Bill on Twitter: @wjsullivan

Villeda SA, Plambeck KE, Middeldorp J, Castellano JM, Mosher KI, Luo J, Smith LK, Bieri G, Lin K, Berdnik D, Wabl R, Udeochu J, Wheatley EG, Zou B, Simmons DA, Xie XS, Longo FM, & Wyss-Coray T (2014). Young blood reverses age-related impairments in cognitive function and synaptic plasticity in mice. Nature medicine, 20 (6), 659-63 PMID: 24793238

Yunker, P., Still, T., Lohr, M., & Yodh, A. (2011). Suppression of the coffee-ring effect by shape-dependent capillary interactions Nature, 476 (7360), 308-311 DOI: 10.1038/nature10344

Ma, X., Balaban, M., Zhang, L., Emanuelsson-Patterson, E., & James, B. (2014). Quantification of Pizza Baking Properties of Different Cheeses, and Their Correlation with Cheese Functionality Journal of Food Science DOI: 10.1111/1750-3841.12540

Bredenkamp, N., Ulyanchenko, S., O’Neill, K., Manley, N., Vaidya, H., & Blackburn, C. (2014). An organized and functional thymus generated from FOXN1-reprogrammed fibroblasts Nature Cell Biology DOI: 10.1038/ncb3023

The Friday Five

Highlighting some of the coolest science news we’ve seen lately.

1. Summer is the time for BBQ. Learn the science of BBQ in this video by It’s Okay To Be Smart.

2. Ever wonder how they get the caffeine out of coffee? Ever wonder what they do with it once it is extracted?

3. Want to know how Tylenol works? Well, so do scientists!

4. The hills might have eyes, but plants have ears! Scientists claim that plants can even hear themselves being eaten alive…much like a graduate student at a thesis defense.

5. How do you turn someone on (or off)? Stimulate their claustrum. Their what?!

 

Science quote of the week:

"The future belongs to science and those who make friends with science." --Jawaharlal Nehru 

Contributed by:  Bill Sullivan

Follow Bill on Twitter: @wjsullivan


Koubeissi, M., Bartolomei, F., Beltagy, A., & Picard, F. (2014). Electrical stimulation of a small brain area reversibly disrupts consciousness Epilepsy & Behavior, 37, 32-35 DOI: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2014.05.027