One thing that is always said about tea is that true tea, made from Camellia sinensis, has caffeine. But what if this wasn’t the case? What if there could be a truly uncaffeinated tea or at least a low-caffeine version? University of New Hampshire neuroscience major Laura Van Beaver is continuing a project to try to make this a reality.
Van Beaver, UNH class of 2016, began work on “Production of Decaffeinated Tea through Genetic Engineering” this summer, through support from the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program.
Her research home was the lab of plant biology and genetics professor Subhash Minocha. Van Beaver has been studying the genes in the tea plant, in particular, the gene that directs the production of caffeine. She believes that it may be possible to turn that gene off, blocking that particular biosynthetic pathway. A visiting professor from India initiated the project and two other undergraduate students picked up the efforts.
Laura Van Beaver, photo courtesy of UNH
One of the common complaints about decaffeinated tea is that the flavor suffers due to the process. In addition, concerns are sometimes raised about the impact on antioxidants. Van Beaver believes that the genetically modified tea would not have degraded taste and drinkers would still benefit from the full load of antioxidants.
Tea would not be the first plant to undergo this process. In Japan researchers produced coffee with 70% less caffeine than traditional coffee. Van Beaver is taking a page from that playbook and seeing if it could work for tea. She is currently working on producing the DNA molecule, or plasmid, which contains the “turned off” gene. She is also beginning to grow tea plants from seed that will be used in tissue culture. Then the work starts to see if these cells can be used to produce a plant with the qualities desired. Van Buren will spend the next year continuing her work. Time will tell if she will then need to hand the project off for future students to continue.
Van Beaver is slated to graduate in 2016. She is part of the UNH Honors Program.
SOURCE: New Hampshire Public Radio and UNH
One thing that is always said about tea is that true tea, made from Camellia sinensis, has caffeine. But what if this wasn’t the case? What if there could be a truly uncaffeinated tea or at least a low-caffeine version? University of New Hampshire neuroscience major Laura Van Beaver is continuing a project to try to make this a reality.
Van Beaver, UNH class of 2016, began work on “Production of Decaffeinated Tea through Genetic Engineering” this summer, through support from the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program.
Her research home was the lab of plant biology and genetics professor Subhash Minocha. Van Beaver has been studying the genes in the tea plant, in particular, the gene that directs the production of caffeine. She believes that it may be possible to turn that gene off, blocking that particular biosynthetic pathway. A visiting professor from India initiated the project and two other undergraduate students picked up the efforts.
