• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Caffeine Genetics

Caffeine Genetics

September 7, 2016
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/160907_sciup_caffeine.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

pexels-photo-129207
(Nao Triponez/Pexels/Public Domain)

BOB HIRSHON (host):

Coffee drinking genes. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Some people need at least three cups of coffee just to get their day going while others can’t handle much caffeine at all. Now, researchers have discovered that having a variant of a gene called PDSS2 makes them more sensitive to caffeine.

NICOLA PIRASTU (University of Edinburgh):

These people are drinking less coffee but they probably don’t know why.

HIRSHON:

And University of Edinburgh geneticist Nicola Pirastu says that having two copies of the gene variant amounts to about two fewer cups of coffee per day.

PIRASTU:

So when we looked at the function of this gene it’s basically inhibiting the caffeine metabolism pathways, affecting the speed at which cafeine is metabolized.

HIRSHON:

Pirastu says when caffeine sticks around in the body, people feel less of an urge to consume more of it. He and his colleagues write in Scientific Reports that the gene variant may also affect the breakdown of certain medications. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

LEARN MORE

Story by Susanne Bard

Category: Daily Show, Station DownloadTag: Genetics & Evolution, Medicine & Health, Nutrition & Food Science
Previous Post:Stopping Fibrosis
Next Post:Neolithic Woodworking

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Mayan Honeybee hives
House sparrow wearing top hat rides aboard a red fireworks rocket

Copyright © 2023 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos