“Caffeine also habituates pollinators and makes them want to come back for more, which is what it does to us, too,” says Victor Albert, a genome scientist at the University of Buffalo in New York, who co-led the sequencing effort.

For example, coffee leaves contain the highest levels of caffeine of any part of the plant, and when they fall on the soil they stop other plants from growing nearby. However, the robusta species was selected for sequencing because its genome is simpler than arabica’s.Ĭaffeine evolved long before sleep-deprived humans became addicted to it, probably to defend the coffee plant against predators and for other benefits. Arabica contains less caffeine, but its lower acidity and bitterness make it more flavourful to many coffee drinkers.

The species accounts for about one-third of the coffee produced, much of it for instant-coffee brands such as Nescafe. An international team of scientists has now identified more than 25,000 protein-making genes in the robusta coffee genome. It is brewed from the fermented, roasted and ground berries of Coffea canephora and Coffea arabica, known as robusta and arabica, respectively. The coffee genome has now been published, and it reveals that the coffee plant makes caffeine using a different set of genes from those found in tea, cacao and other perk-you-up plants.Ĭoffee plants are grown across some 11 million hectares of land, with more than two billion cups of the beverage drunk every day. Caffeine's buzz is so nice it evolved twice.

Coffee buzz versus other caffeine