Caffeine's effect on plants

[Rachel Lovejoy]

Hello, I am researching the effects of caffeine on plants, specifically pea plants, for a possible article to be published online. I'd appreciate whatever you could share on this topic. My deadline is Sept. 12. Thank you so much for any help you can give me.

RL

[Frankco]

Hi Rachel,

Since you are researching the effects of caffeine on plants, you are
probably aware of A.P. Vitória and P. Mazzafera published paper
"Cytokinin-like effects of caffeine in bioassays". Sorry, I don't have the
paper. It's available on Springerlink. I'll copy the abstract just in case
you have not seen it.

In the study of Witches Broom, a disease of Cocoa, plants it was found that
the endogenous amount of caffeine within the plant raises in response to the
infection. In the paper they suggest the cytokinin effect of caffeine might
be due to the higher amount of caffeine "unbalancing" the endogenous plant
hormones and the growth is not directly caused by the caffeine. Sorry, I
don't have this paper either.

With the deadline fast approaching I'll add the abstracts of both studies
below. I hope they are of some help.
Good luck.

Cytokinin-like effects of caffeine in bioassays
authors A.P. Vitória and P. Mazzafera
(Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil). Dept. de Fisiologia Vegetal)
Date of publication May 1998

Cytokinin-like effects of pure caffeine were tested in bioassays specific
for this hormonal activity and in cell elongation bioassays.
6-benzylaminopurine and kinetin (KIN) were used for comparison with
caffeine. Although weaker than those given by cytokinins, positive responses
were observed in all specific bioassays and in elongation of soybean
internodes. A remarkable synergistic effect between caffeine and KIN was
observed for the synthesis of Chl in the tobacco cell suspension bioassay,
in which different concentrations of the alkaloid were combined with a
single concentration of KIN. The hormone-like effect of caffeine might be
related to the resemblance between caffeine and adenine derivatives.

Biochemical changes during the development of witches'
broom: the most important disease of cocoa in Brazil
caused by Crinipellis perniciosa

L. M. Scarpari, L. W. Meinhardt, P. Mazzafera, A. W. V. Pomella, M. A.
Schiavinato,
J. C. M. Cascardo4 and G. A. G. Pereira1,
1 Departamento de Gene´tica e Evolucxa~o, IB/UNICAMP, CP 6109, 13083-970,
Campinas-SP, Brazil
Received 17 July 2004; Accepted 9 November 2004

It has been demonstrated in vitro that caffeine can mimic the physiological
effect of cytokinins (Vitoria and Mazzafera, 1998). Thus, since this
compound shows a peak during infection, it can be speculated that caffeine
could contribute to the hormonal imbalance in the infected plant. However,
exogenous cytokinin applied to normal stems was not able to mimic the green
broom development (Abohamed et al., 1981).

Frank N.W. Indiana

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Rachel Lovejoy" <rlovej...@roadrunner.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 8:50 AM
To: <plan...@magpie.bio.indiana.edu>
Subject: [Plant-education] Caffeine's effect on plants

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[Larry D. Noodén]

I think this group will find this article in Science interesting/useful:

Hemingway, C., W. Dahl, C. Haufler, and C. Stuessy. 2011. Building
Botanical Literacy. Science 331 (6024):1535-1536.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6024/1535.short

Plant biology can be made interesting and engaging, but it does
require special efforts. Some good ideas are aired here, but others
having to do with topics (long story) are not.

A plug: Support Science/AAAS They have a very important role to
play in the current US antiscience/anti-intellectual atmosphere.

Larry D. Noodén, Professor Emeritus Phone 734-764-4436
Biology-MCDB/EEB FAX 734-647-0884
University of Michigan FAX 734-763-0544
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1048 <http://www.umich.edu/~ldnum/>