Coffee and Beer: The Genetic Opposites

Have you ever drunk coffee to make you stay up for longer hours or to not even sleep at all? Or beer to make you feel calm or sleepy?

From http://www.telegraph.co.uk

From www.scientificamerican.com

We may already know that coffee has been effective in making us work for longer hours or “work on memory tasks,” or that beer can make us think more creatively and produce more ideas (Cho, 2013). But did you know that these beverages can also be influential up to the genetic level?

Who would have thought that caffeine and ethanol could change our DNA? Well, an article entitled “Coffee or Beer? The Choice Could Affect Your Genome” posted in ScienceDaily showed a study on how these beverages actually cause modifications on a chromosomal level.

Prof. Martin Kupiec and his team at Tel Aviv University's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology were the ones who conducted the study. They worked with yeast because it “shares many important genetic similarities with humans” (American Friends of Tel Aviv University, 2013). They exposed yeast to various stimuli and stressors, but only coffee and beer had an obvious effect. Caffeine shortened the telomeres while ethanol lengthened them.

But what are telomeres? These are the ends of the strands of DNA in our chromosomes, which are made up of proteins and DNA. They are responsible for correctly copying and repairing DNA strands. Telomeres shorten every time the cell duplicates. When telomeres become too short, the cell dies (American Friends of Tel Aviv University, 2013).

According to the article, cancer cells are an exception to telomere shortening (American Friends of Tel Aviv University, 2013). Also, a Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist Prof. Elizabeth Blackburn studied that shortening of the telomeres is a characteristic of aging. Knowing these attributes of telomeres, with further study and experimentation, coffee or anything with caffeine may be developed to fight cancer cells by shortening its telomeres for it to eventually die, and as for beer or anything with ethanol, it may regenerate shortened telomeres to hamper aging.

Indeed, coffee and beer are already a big part of our society and our lives. This study shows that these beverages can even span the scientific and technological realms. Further developments can make coffee and beer huge scientific and medical breakthroughs.

Despite knowing the beneficial effects of coffee and beer, we must still remember to always drink in moderation. 

By: Angeline Mora

STS THW

Group 6

Sources: 

http://lifehacker.com/why-you-should-drink-beer-for-big-ideas-coffee-to-get-513262326

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131205142127.htm