Ep 54 Wake Up and Smell the Caffeine
This Podcast Will Kill You
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The Evolution of Caffeine
There is more than one way to synthesize caffeine if you're a plant. The genes that are involved in the production of caffeine have duplicated multiple times throughout the history of this genus. Every precursor compound is bitter and toxic to the exact kind of animals that want to nibble on these plants. And so at every step, every gene duplication, every mutation that led to the process, every compound has a function for the plant.
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