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RP-HPLC and transcript profile indicate increased leaf caffeine in Coffea canephora plants by light

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Relation http://ir.cftri.com/12183/
 
Title RP-HPLC and transcript profile indicate increased leaf
caffeine in Coffea canephora plants by light
 
Creator Avinash, Kumar
Simmi, P. S.
Gyanendra Kumar, Naik
Giridhar, P.
 
Subject 06 Chromatography
04 Coffee
 
Description Light is a survival quotient for all photosynthetic plants and its reception is very complex due to direct
regulation by photoreceptors and their downstream transcriptional factors or indirectly by circadian rhythm.
Shade-grown coffee cultivation though less productive than the sun tolerant varieties, pose high potential as
benefit to the environment. Other than high nutrient soil associated with shade-cultivated coffee, light is
another important difference when compared to full sun cultivation practice. It is thus important to study if
light has a role in accumulation of caffeine - the most undesired compound in coffee. Light irradiation of
suspension cultures of Coffea arabica enhances caffeine content. However, no such study is available on
whole plants, which are anticipated to act in accord with organismal homeostasis. Moreover, the promoter of
theobromine synthase-like gene involved in caffeine biosynthesis carries several light responsive motifs. In
this report, it is shown that in complete darkness the caffeine content in young leaves of 1 year old seedlings
is very low (0.094±0.003 mg/100 mg tissue dw.). However, it increases to 5.9 folds within 6hrs of exposure
to light. In addition, caffeine content drops (0.218±0.03 mg/100 mg tissue dw.) when light exposed plants are
returned to complete dark. Transcript analysis further reveals that this difference is due to regulation of the
caffeine biosynthetic genes. A further discussion to the effect of dark and light on levels of caffeine is also
provided. Though cup quality of shade-grown coffee is indefinite, this study clearly demonstrates the role of
light in regulation of caffeine biosynthesis.
 
Date 2015
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Rights —
 
Identifier http://ir.cftri.com/12183/1/Journal%20of%20Biology%20and%20Earth%20Sciences%202015%3B%205%20%281%29%201-9.pdf
Avinash, Kumar and Simmi, P. S. and Gyanendra Kumar, Naik and Giridhar, P. (2015) RP-HPLC and transcript profile indicate increased leaf caffeine in Coffea canephora plants by light. Journal of Biology and Earth Sciences, 5 (1). pp. 1-9.