Production of a new low-caffeine hybrid coffee and the biochemical mechanism of low caffeine accumulation

The GCAs are new tetraploid interspecific hybrids developed in Madagascar from Coffea eugenioides, C. canephora and C. arabica. Selected GCA having genotype UF1023 contained 0.37% DW caffeine and no detectable theobromine in green beans. Low caffeine accumulation in GCA plants is due mainly to the low biosynthetic activity of purine alkaloids, possibly the extremely weak N-methyltransferase reactions in caffeine biosynthesis. No significant catabolic activity of caffeine was found in GCA-UF1023, in common with almost all coffee plants including C. arabica.