Pseudomonas sp. isolated from soil of coffee plantation area has been shown to degrade higher concentrations of caffeine (∼15 g l-1) by N-demethylation at a rate higher than what has been reported for any strain so far. This strain exhibits positive chemotaxis towards caffeine (1,3,7-trimethylxanthine) in swarm plate assay and modified capillary assay in a dose dependant manner. Related methylxanthines and xanthine also act as chemoattractants for the strain with the highest relative chemotactic response (RCR) seen for xanthine. Chemotaxis in Pseudomonas sp. is possibly plasmid mediated as indicated by positive chemotaxis of plasmid transformed E. coli DH5α. The chemotactic abilities of Pseudomonas sp. combined with higher rates of degradation of caffeine can be used in the development of strategies for biodecaffeination of caffeine containing wastes. © 2008 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH &amp; Co. KGaA.

Sathyanarayana Naidu Gummadi

Department Of Biotechnology

Escherichia coli

Pseudomonas

Pseudomonas sp.

Caffeine

METHYLXANTHINE

XANTHINE DERIVATIVE

article

chemistry

Chemotaxis

Classification

COFFEE

metabolism

Microbiology

physiology

Soil Microbiology

XANTHINES

IIT Madras is a public technical and research university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Founded in 1959, it is recognised as an Institute of National Importance.

IIT Madras has been ranked as the top engineering institute in India for four years in a row by the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the MHRD

It currently offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees across 16 disciplines in Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Management. About 596 faculty belonging to science and engineering departments and centres of the Institute are engaged in teaching, research and industrial consultancy.

IIT Madras

Journal of Basic Microbiology

Caffeine, a purine alkaloid is a constituent of widely consumed beverages. The scientific evidence which has proved the harm of this alkaloid has paved the way for innumerable research in the area of caffeine degradation. In addition to this, the fact that the by-products of the coffee and tea industry pollute the environment has called for the need of decaffeinating coffee and tea industry's by-products. Though physical and chemical methods for decaffeination are available, the lack of specificity for removal of caffeine in these techniques and their non-eco-friendly nature has opened the area of microbial and enzymatic degradation of caffeine. Another important application of microbial caffeine degradation apart from its advantages like specificity, eco-friendliness and cost-effectiveness is the fact that this process will enable the production of industrially and medically useful components of the caffeine degradation pathway like theobromine and theophylline. This is a comprehensive review which mainly focuses on caffeine degradation, large-scale degradation of the same and its applications in the industrial world. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Physiology, biochemistry and possible applications of microbial caffeine degradation

A bacterial strain capable of utilizing caffeine as the sole source of carbon and nitrogen has been isolated from soil of coffee plantation area and deposited at National Collection of Industrial Microorganisms as Pseudomonas sp. based on biochemical studies. In this study, the isolate showed close resemblance to Pseudomonas putida strain T-57 based on 16S rRNA analysis. The ability of Pseudomonas sp. to degrade caffeine was studied by growing the isolate in caffeine medium with 1.2, 5, 7.5 and 10 g L -1 of initial concentration of caffeine. It was observed that the isolate could efficiently degrade caffeine at an initial concentration of 5 g L -1 within 48 h. It could also bring about 59.9 and 21.5% degradation of caffeine in 96 h when the initial concentration of caffeine in the medium was 7.5 and 10 g L -1, respectively. Analysis of the metabolites formed during the course of time showed that degradation followed a demethylation pathway with 3, 7-dimethylxanthine as the first major product of degradation. Furthermore, a 12 kb plasmid was isolated and the involvement of this plasmid in caffeine degradation was indicated by growth of transformed E. eoli DH5a strain. This strain can therefore prove to be a very good candidate for the biotreatment of residues of coffee and tea processing plants and also a potential strain for the development of improved methods of decaffeination. © 2010 Academic Journals Inc.

Fulltext

Research Journal of Microbiology

Biodegradation of caffeine by Pseudomonas sp. NCIM 5235

Several microorganisms isolated from soil were tested for their ability to utilize caffeine as the sole carbon and nitrogen source. The isolate identified as Pseudomonas sp. GSC 1182 showed 80% degradation of caffeine in 48 h when caffeine was used as the sole carbon and nitrogen source. In the presence of sucrose (5 g/l), 100% degradation of caffeine was achieved within 36-40 h. The degradation rate was also found to increase when fructose, lactose and galactose were used as carbon source. The isolate showed decreased level (< 10%) of caffeine degradation in the presence of glucose. At an initial pH of 6.0, the complete degradation of caffeine was attained in 24 h. The addition of urea and ammonium sulfate as external nitrogen source decreased the caffeine degradation to 35% and 70% respectively. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

International Journal of Food Microbiology

A preliminary study of caffeine degradation by Pseudomonas sp. GSC 1182

In this study, the kinetics of degradation of caffeine and related methylxanthines by induced cells of Pseudomonas sp. was performed. The kinetics data showed that degradation of caffeine, theobromine, and 7-methylxanthine followed Michealis-Menten kinetics. The values of K m are low for caffeine and 7-methylxanthine and high for theobromine. Degradation of caffeine and theobromine was enhanced in the presence of NADH and NADPH, whereas the degradation of 7-methylxanthine was unaffected. Among the various metal ions tested, Fe2+ was found to enhance the rate of degradation for all three substrates, whereas Zn2+ and Cu2+ inhibited the degradation of caffeine and theobromine but not 7-methylxanthine. The differences in kinetic parameters and cofactor requirement suggest the possibility of the involvement of more than one N-demethylases in the caffeine catabolic pathway in Pseudomonas sp. The induced cells can serve as effective biocatalysts for the development of biodecaffeination techniques. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Current Microbiology

Degradation kinetics of caffeine and related methylxanthines by induced cells of Pseudomonas sp.

Caffeine in coffee pulp prevents the utilization of nutrition rich coffee pulp effectively. Microbial methods of caffeine degradation can help in detoxifying the pulp and it prove as a better alternative to the conventional methods of environmental unfriendly solvent extraction process of decaffeination. Previously Pseudomonas sp. GSC 1182 was isolated from the soil samples of coffee cultivation area to degrade caffeine. In this report, the cell growth kinetics of Pseudomonas sp. GSC 1182 at various concentration of caffeine ranging from 0.05 to 20 g/l was studied. The kinetic data showed substrate inhibition kinetics and maximum growth rate was obtained when the isolate was grown in medium containing 2.5 g/l of initial concentration of caffeine. The results also showed that the isolate was able to grow at high concentrations of caffeine (10 g/l). Different substrate inhibition models were fitted to the kinetic data and found the Luong model was best. The model predicted kinetic parameters were in agreement with the experimental findings. The kinetic parameters were: Sm = 20.2 g/l; KS = 0.59 g/l; μm = 0.24 h-1 and n = 2. This is the first detailed report on the cell growth kinetics of microorganism using caffeine as the substrate. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Process Biochemistry

Kinetics of cell growth and caffeine utilization by Pseudomonas sp. GSC 1182

Catabolism of caffeine (1,3,7-trimethylxanthine) in microorganisms commences via two possible mechanisms: demethylation and oxidation. Through the demethylation route, the major metabolite formed in fungi is theophylline (1,3-dimethylxanthine), whereas theobromine (3,7-dimethylxanthine) is the major metabolite in bacteria. In certain bacterial species, caffeine has also been oxidized directly to trimethyl uric acid in a single step. The conversion of caffeine to its metabolites is primarily brought about by N-demethylases (such as caffeine demethylase, theobromine demethylase and heteroxanthinedemethylase), caffeine oxidase and xanthine oxidase that are produced by several caffeine-degrading bacterial species such as Pseudomonas putida and species within the genera Alcaligenes, Rhodococcus and Klebsiella. Development of biodecaffeination techniques using these enzymes or using whole cells offers an attractive alternative to the present existing chemical and physical methods removal of caffeine, which are costly, toxic and non-specific to caffeine. This review mainly focuses on the biochemistry of microbial caffeine degradation, presenting recent advances and the potential biotechnological application of caffeine-degrading enzymes. © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Biotechnology Letters

Catabolic pathways and biotechnological applications of microbial caffeine degradation

Chemotaxis of Pseudomonas sp. to caffeine and related methylxanthines

Journal	Journal of Basic Microbiology
ISSN	0233111X
Open Access	No