Some people can’t start the day without a piping hot cup of coffee (or two, or three). Now, scientists have identified a gene that may explain why some people drink more coffee than others.
By looking at populations of people in villages in Italy, researchers conducted a genome-wide association study in which they examined markers in DNA and identified a gene called PDSS2 that could play a role in caffeine metabolism. In the study, which was published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers asked more than 1,200 people in Italy how much coffee they drank and compared their consumption and genetic results to another population of 1,731 people in the Netherlands.
