Coffee – That’s Sucrose to the Taste Buds

When somebody tells you to wake up and smell the coffee, he might as well be referring to sucrose in coffee beans that releases several aroma and flavor precursors during roasting. Sucrose plays a vital role in coffee organoleptic quality, and recently, a team of scientists from CIRAD and the Agricultural Institute of Paraná in Brazil has identified the genes responsible for sucrose accumulation in coffee beans.

Their work showed that an enzyme, sucrose synthetase, is responsible for sucrose accumulation in coffee (Coffea arabica) beans. Sucrose synthetase exists in the form of at least two similar proteins with the same biological function - isoforms -, but which are coded by two different genes: SUS1 and SUS2. Isoform SUS2 is responsible for sucrose accumulation in coffee beans, while isoform SUS1 seems to be involved in sucrose breakdown and thus in energy production. The researchers also examined the relationship between shading, which is known to improve coffee quality, and the activities of sucrose metabolism enzymes.

Read the press release at http://www.cirad.fr/en/actualite/communique.php?id=610.