Summary: A new study suggests that your love for coffee could be influenced by your genes. Researchers compared genetic data with coffee drinking habits in the United States and the United Kingdom, finding a genetic link to coffee consumption.
However, the study also revealed complex relationships between coffee consumption, certain health conditions and the environment.
Highlights:
- Genetic variants inherited from parents can influence the amount of coffee you drink.
- There are links between the genetics of coffee drinking and health conditions such as obesity and substance use.
- The relationship between coffee and psychiatric disorders varies across populations, suggesting an environmental influence.
Source: University of Western Ontario
It’s 9 a.m. and the cafes are bustling with the queue for the drive-thru surrounding the building. This is a common phenomenon all over the world, as coffee is one of the most consumed drinks.
But is our taste for coffee passed down to us from our parents? Or is it because of our environment?
Researchers from the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) used genetic data as well as self-reported coffee consumption figures to mount a genome-wide association study (GWAS). These types of studies use large volumes of genetic data to help researchers identify genetic variants, genes, and biology associated with a particular disease or health trait.
The researchers compared the genetic characteristics of coffee drinking from a 23andMe database in the United States with an even larger set of records in the United Kingdom.
“We used this data to identify regions of the genome associated with whether a person is more or less likely to consume coffee, and then identify the genes and biology that might be driving coffee consumption,” said Hayley Thorpe, the study’s principal investigator and researcher. postdoctoral researcher at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry at Western.
The results showed a genetic influence on coffee consumption. In other words, particular genetic variants inherited from parents influence how much coffee you’re likely to consume.
The study was published in Neuropsychopharmacology.
However, the conclusions regarding the health effects of a cup of java were not as definitive.
The group’s genome-wide association study of 130,153 participants in the US-based 23andMe study was compared to a similar UK Biobank database of 334,649 UK residents.
The comparison found consistent positive genetic associations between coffee and health conditions such as obesity and substance use in both populations. This does not mean that someone who drinks coffee will use other substances or develop obesity, but rather that the genetic predisposition to coffee consumption is linked in some way to these characteristics, Thorpe said.
The findings became more complicated when examining psychiatric disorders.
“Look at the genetics of anxiety, for example, or bipolar and depression: in the 23andMe dataset, they tend to be genetically positively correlated with the genetics of coffee drinking,” Thorpe said. “But then in the UK biobank you see the opposite pattern, where they are genetically negatively correlated. This is not what we expected.
Researchers noted other dissimilarities between populations.
“We found positive associations between coffee drinking genetics measured in 23andMe and psychiatric disorders, but these associations tended to be negative when examined in the UK Biobank,” Thorpe said.
“These discrepancies could be due to many reasons, such as a trade-off between tea and coffee consumption that differs between Americans and Brits. »
Although the study adds to the existing literature and helps to better understand the impact of coffee on an individual’s health, additional work is needed to understand the relationship between coffee, other substance use and health issues in unique environments, Thorpe said.
This study was carried out in collaboration with Professor Jibran Khokar of Schulich Medicine & Dentistry and Professors Sandra Sanchez-Roige and Abraham Palmer of UCSD.
About this research news on genetics and caffeine consumption
Author: Cynthia Fazio
Source: University of Western Ontario
Contact: Cynthia Fazio – University of Western Ontario
Picture: Image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Closed access.
“Genome-wide association studies of coffee consumption in British and American participants of European ancestry reveal cohort-specific genetic associations” by Hayley HA Thorpe et al. Neuropsychopharmacology
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies of coffee consumption in British and American participants of European ancestry reveal cohort-specific genetic associations
Coffee is one of the most consumed drinks. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on coffee consumption among US-based 23andMe participants (NOT= 130,153) and identified 7 significant loci, many of which replicate in three multi-ancestral cohorts.
We examined genetic correlations and performed a phenomenon-wide association study across hundreds of biomarkers, health and lifestyle traits, then compared our results to the largest available GWAS of coffee consumption from the UK Biobank (UKB; NOT= 334,659). We observed consistent positive genetic correlations with substance use and obesity in both cohorts.
Other genetic correlations were discordant, including positive genetic correlations between coffee consumption and psychiatric illness, pain, and gastrointestinal traits in 23andMe that were absent or negative in UKB, and genetic correlations with cognition which were negative at 23andMe but positive at UKB.
A phenomenon-wide association study using polygenic coffee consumption scores derived from 23andMe or UKB summary statistics also found consistent associations with increased risk of obesity- and red blood cell-related traits, but all other associations were cohort specific.
Our study shows that the genetics of coffee drinking is associated with substance use and obesity across cohorts, but also that GWAS performed in different populations could capture cultural differences in the relationship between behavior and genetics .