Caffeine is a significant ingredient in many beverages: coffee, tea, cocoa, cola and energy drinks. Researchers have discovered that there are also bacteria that are addicted to it. Let's find out why and how it can benefit our ball?
By: Dr. Dror Bar-Nir
The stimulant caffeine is a significant ingredient in many drinks we drink: coffee (after which it is named), tea, cocoa, cola and energy drinks. Caffeine is a natural component of the plants of origin used as a source of caffeine, although it is also produced in chemical laboratories. Caffeine is an ingredient in certain medications, including those that increase breathing and heart rate and pain relievers. Also, caffeine is present in more than 60 known plants, and its role in them is to repel or kill insects, thus preventing them from eating the plant.
300 mg of caffeine per day is considered a safe amount to consume for an average person (weighing 70-60 kg). In the consumption of more than 500 mg, caffeine is toxic to humans, and then caffeine poisoning may develop. For smaller creatures, such as some bacteria, it is lethal even in low concentrations (2 mg per ml); Low concentrations of caffeine in waste water, for example, which also reach the groundwater, cause inhibition of germination and growth of plants. This is mostly common in urban and industrial areas.
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Caffeine addicts
As with any natural substance, there are bacteria in nature that are able to break down caffeine into its components. Bacteria that break down caffeine are Pseudomonas putidaCBB5 bacteria. These bacteria break down the caffeine into xanthine, which can be used as a source of nitrogen, carbon and energy production for building their bodies. The enzymatic system responsible for the breakdown contains four genes and is called Ndm (N-demethylation). All the genes are located in one operon (operational genetic unit) of the bacterium. If so, is it possible to harness P. putida bacteria to clean sewage from caffeine? Not really: it is not easy to work with these bacteria in an industrial way.
A group of researchers led by Jeffrey Barrick (Barrick) from the University of Austin in Texas, and Manny Subramanian (Subramanian) from the University of Iowa, changed the Ndm operon of the bacteria so that it could be expressed in the known bacterium A. coli (Escherichia coli), and introduced it to him. In addition to this, the researchers damaged one of the genes responsible for the synthesis of purines (some of the nitrogenous bases that make up the nucleic acids) in the bacterial cell, thus turning it into a bacterium that depends on the supply of purines from the outside. Hexanthine (formed from caffeine) is an intermediate in the synthesis of purines, from which the missing purines can be formed. This is how A. bacteria were created. The voices of the "addicted" to caffeine. The engineered bacteria thrived in the laboratory in media containing cola, diet cola and energy drinks. They did not survive on decaffeinated drinks.
The researchers intend to spread the genetically engineered bacteria in places contaminated with caffeine. As long as the infection continues, the bacteria will thrive and multiply. When the caffeine runs out in the contaminated area (and it will now be free of caffeine), the bacteria will die. In the laboratory, the amount of bacteria measured after their culture in the contaminated solution can be a measure of the amount of contamination.
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