Gene to suppress the desire for drinking alcohol?

This study done by the UT Southwestern Medical Center was the largest genome wide association meta analysis and replication study ever done which compares the DNA and genetics as whole of over 105,000 light and heavy drinkers. The researches claim to have found a gene variation in β-Klotho, while doing this study that is linked with the regulation of alcohol consumption. This less common variant was found in 40% of people throughout this study and is linked with decreased desire for alcohol consumption.

This could be a huge breakthrough finding as it can be possible that this study can lead to a mechanism in which we may be able to influence to reduce alcohol intake. This could be especially beneficial for people who are fighting alcoholism and are trying to stop. The study discusses how a lot of other research has been primarily focused on addiction, while this study has discovered something that comes before the addiction, consumption to begin with. More studies are being done on how to influence this gene but some are saying it may be able to be the development of a drug that would stimulate it. This could have incredible health benefits if testing goes well and it is proven safe. As decreasing someone from heavy drinker or alcoholic by simply taking away the desire to drink would help many peoples overall health. This large study could have huge benefits and it will be interesting to follow as more testing is done in the near future.

Tapping genetics for better beer

A Belgian lab is trying to make brew better beer with new strains of yeast. The four ingredients that usually influence the flavor of beer are grains, water, hops, and yeast. Barley is usually used as the grain; it is moistened and allowed to germinate and then it is dried and roasted. Depending on how long the malt is roasted, it can make the beer taste like biscuits, coffee, or chocolate. The malted grains are then milled, cooked in water, and rinsed to produce a brother called wort. The amount of water used can change the acidity and therefore the taste of the beer. The wort is then boiled and hops are added; worts contribute to beer’s bitterness, but it also gets citrusy, fruity and floral notes from them. After the broth is cooled, yeast is added to produce alcohol and bubbles. Different yeasts can change the beer to make it crisp or sour.

            Carlsberg brewery in Denmark established one of the world’s first yeast-biology labs in 1875. Here, Emil Christian Hansen isolated the first pure culture of brewing yeast in 1883. Dr. Kevin Verstrepen wanted to change the way yeast is used in beer so he began researching. He tried at a few places before he went to Harvard, where he focused on the roles of repetitive DNA sequences in generating diversity. He left in order to work on research with wine and beer. He had 30,000 types of yeast including 1,000 strains used by brewers and another 1,000 isolated from fruit, flowers, insects, and people because he knew that many of them had genes known to influence the taste and other traits that brewers like. Dr. Verstrepen and his team made new strains by mating different strains of yeast and screening their offspring; the whole idea behind this was that if the two known yeast mate, it will create a completely new strain that has unique traits. They have made many new strains and are using them to make beer, and a few craft breweries have asked to use the new strains of yeast, but the team is not ready to release the new strains yet. It is so crazy to think that changing one thing in beer can change it so much. I think that this is what keeps the industry going; this is what keeps the consumers on their toes. Without new discoveries like this, the industry would stay boring and the job of brewers would be tedious, but with new techniques advancing, they are kept on their toes as well. 

Remember to thank microorganisms for your beer

“About 500 years ago, the accidental natural hybridization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the yeast responsible for things like ale, wine and bread, and a distant yeast cousin gave rise to lager beer.”

Cold-brewed lager is the world’s most consumed alcoholic beverage which fuels an industry with annual sales of more than $250 billion. The initial lagers depended on the cross of Saccharomyces species which is as evolutionarily diverse as humans and chickens. The results, an interspecies yeast hybrid that yields high economic value. Thanks to new methods of making interspecies in the lab, the producers of beer, wine, and biofuels which are dependent on yeast may soon have many more strains of the microorganism to work with. The new methods achieve hybrids at rates of one in a thousand cells which is much more efficient than nature. 

There are hundreds of known species of yeasts worldwide. They are essential to the process of fermentation. Yeasts are also used for cider, whiskey, cheese, yogurt, soy sauce and an array of other fermented foods and beverages. In the industry, yeasts are used to produce biofuels and to make enzymes, flavors and pigments and even drugs such as human insulin.

Having new hybrids means new experimentation and new products. For example, the happy marriage of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and its distant cousin Saccharomyces eubayanus, a species that inhabits tree galls in nature, permitted the cold-temperature fermentation that made lager beer possible. The new method uses plasmids circles of DNA that can be built into an organism to confer a genetic quality. In the lab, plasmids are routinely used to manipulate genes in cells. Genes in the plasmids facilitate yeast hybridization by expressing a naturally occurring yeast protein that allows two distinct species of yeasts to mate.

Article used: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151204183622.htm

Related article: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/scientists-are-genetically-modifying-their-way-to-new-types-of-beer

Another Victory For Beer Science

Pictured above is an orange colored gall which is responsible for harboring the species of yeast that is used to make lager beer. Thanks to a brand new method, interspecies yeast hybrids (like the ones used to make lager beer) are now able to be made in the lab easily. This means that the makers of beer, wine, biofuels, and many other products will now soon have other strains of the yeast species to work with.

This discovery is great because an interspecies hybrid of yeast has a one in a billion chance of appearing in nature which means that waiting on nature to create the next new yeast is not very efficient. Now in a laboratory they can achieve a hybrid in about one in a thousand cells. 

Currently popular strains of yeast used to make beer and wine tend to be sterile which means they can't create spores and therefore can't make more of themselves to continue making the beer and wine. With the new interspecies hybrids and the use of plasmids, a trait to make the popular yeast strain fertile could be implanted into the DNA of the popular yeast. 

Genetics Use In Beer

            Brewing yeast is the microorganism that alter tepid grain water into beer. In genetics laboratories, brewing yeast has been genetically engineered to brew better and stronger brews. Each different brewing yeast has its own genetic limitations. Some are great strong beers, where as others are not alcoholic enough. Brewing yeast is important of genetic research and biology. The ability to change the DNA of brewing yeast has grown tremendously after the long work on the yeast genome and genetic engineering. To get rid of the disgusting taste in beer, people have learned to chop out the gene that created the butter-flavored molecules diacetyl. They have also learned to make better beer by increasing the volume on genes. With the genetic knowledge, people can alter yeast-produced factors such as flavor alcohol tolerance and aroma. They then can find a yeast genetically engineered to match with it.         
             Some wines in America are made with a genetically modified wine yeast (MLO1) that lacks the genes that produces a chemical that would give the drinker a headache. Genetically modified foods such as beer yeast has the danger of harming the consumer’s health. To prevent this, genetic techniques exist that delete small amounts of genetic data.       
             There was a study of 17 lager yeast strains from breweries. It was found by using DNA micro arrays that the hybridization occurs twice.
Link 1: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/science/craft-beer-at-the-genetic-level.html
Link 2: Brewing A Great Beer: DNA Study Reveals Evolution Of Beer Yeasts

Coffee or Beer? The Choice Could Affect Your Genome

A team of researchers at Tel Aviv University's Department of molecular microbiology and bio technology have discovered that the genome of certain kinds of yeast that share many genetic similarities with humans is affected by caffeine and alcohol. Telomeres are the endpoints of chromosomal DNA, and are made of DNA and proteins. Researchers have found that caffeine shortens and alcohol lengthens the telomeres. Telomeres are critical for ensuring that DNA strands are repaired and copied the right way. During replications the chromosomes are copied into the new cell, the telomeres shorten slightly. When the telomeres become to short, the cell dies. The only cells that have a mechanism for avoiding the shortening of telomeres are fetal and cancer cells. The yeast cells were exposed to 12 other environmental stressors, like temperature and pH, but they had no effect on the telomere length. They did find that when exposed to a low concentration of caffeine, similar to the amount found in a shot of espresso, that the telomeres are shortened. When the yeast cells were exposed to 5-7% ethanol, the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, the telomeres had lengthen. TAU researchers scanned 6,000 strains of yeast. They conducted genetic tests on strains with the longest and shortest telomeres, that showed that two genes, Rap1 and Rif1, are the main players mediating the environmental stressors and telomere length. More research will need to be conducted, to observe wether human telomeres will respond the same way the yeast telomeres have.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131205142127.htm
http://www.fastcocreate.com/3018853/infographic-what-beer-and-coffee-do-to-your-brain-and-which-makes-you-more-creative

The choice between coffee or beer could have an effect on genome

         A study from the Tel Aviv University’s Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology reveals that coffee and beer may affect our genomes differently. Alcohol was found to lengthen and caffeine was found to shorten telomeres in yeast that is genetically similar to humans. Telomeres are located at the ends of DNA strands and are crucial to the correct repairing and copying of DNA strands. The yeast cells were exposed to twelve environmental stressors that did not affect telomere length, except for the presence of ethanol and caffeine. In the presence of 5-7% ethanol solution, the telomeres grew in length. In the presence of a small concentration of caffeine, the telomeres decreased in length. Rap1 and Rif1 were the two genes identified that were identified to play a role in environmental factors and telomere length. There are about 400 genes that play a role in telomere length, most of which are in humans. More work must be done to reveal if these factors will have the same effects on humans. The identification of a relationship between these environmental stressors and telomere length could lead to dietary guidelines and treatments.

            Another study of the effects of coffee consumption showed differing results. A study of older adults found that those who drank coffee saw decreased risk of death from diabetes, accidents, and injuries, respiratory disease, stroke, infections, and heart disease. The risk of death was 10% lower in those who consumed three of more cups a day than non- coffee drinkers.

            Coffee or beer? I found that the fact that the choice could affect our genomes to be rather interesting. As the leader of the study stated, this is the first time environmental factors that affect telomere length have been found. I did not realize that the discovery of the relationship between coffee or beer consumption and telomere length could be significant. Yet, it was brought to light that the relationship could be used in medical treatment. I am curious to see if the relationship will exist when the study is conducted for humans.

Primary Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131205142127.htm

Secondary Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120519071454.htm

Getting A-"Head"

The gene CFG1 was uncovered by researcher Tomás G. Villa and his associates. They understood that certain proteins from barley and yeast used in the brewing process provided with different foams.



The proteins from the yeast are what provide stability for the foam, keeping the bubbles of carbon dioxide in the foam from popping.

Using information of previously identified genes found in wine and sake yeasts, they were able to come across the gene that provided a good frothy head on a beer. This opens so many new possibilities to the world’s favorite alcoholic drink. Now if only there was a way to keep beer fresh longer.

Chug-A-Lug

This one goes out to all of those “fun-loving” college kids out there.  A study going on in Europe suggests that heavy beer drinking, coupled with a gene mutation involved in the metabolism of alcohol, may face a higher risk in the development of stomach cancer.  The study suggests that having the genetic variant and drinking about three 12-ounce cans or more of beer per day markedly raised the risk of “non-cardia gastric cancer”.  The variant being looked at is the "rs1230025 variant", which is located among a group of three genes already linked to alcohol digestion.  “All we can currently say is that the genetic variant is associated with increased risk, heavy drinking is associated with increased risk, and when the two are together, the risk is even worse,” said Eric Duell, a senior epidemiologist at the Catalan Institute of Oncology in Barcelona, Spain, and lead author of the study.   Understandably, either of these factors on their own have the ability to raise one’s risk for developing stomach cancer, but together that risk is much increased.  The variant is carried by about twenty percent of the European population, so it is not something rare.  Although never fear, this genetic issue seems to apply more towards northern Europeans than it does to Americans.   Nevertheless, it is still an interesting factor to be observed and should be further looked into.

Coming from someone who is looking at some form of gastric cancer from both sides of the family, this was interesting, but not very concerning.  Three beers every night seems like quite a lot, but I don’t doubt that there are people out there who drink that much or more every evening.   If you’re drinking that much or more every night I would be more concerned about your liver than your stomach.