科學家發現基因決定人們對咖啡的需求
Whether a cup of java will leave you craving more could be chalked up to your genes.
一杯咖啡是否會使你上癮也許是由你的基因決定的。
People with a newly identified genetic variant in their DNA, called PDSS2, may be inclined to drink fewer cups of coffee than others, according to a small study published in the journal Scientific Reports.
根據發佈在《科學報告雜誌》上的一項小研究顯示：有這種新發現的遺傳變異PDSS2基因的人，可能會傾向於比其他人喝更少的咖啡。
"I actually was very surprised to find a new gene for coffee consumption," said Nicola Pirastu, a chancellor's research fellow at the University of Edinburgh's Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences and Informatics, and lead author of the study.
愛丁堡大學厄舍學院人口健康科學和信息學研究員，同時他也是這篇研究的主撰寫人的尼古拉·皮拉斯圖表示：“能找到關於咖啡消費量的新基因真的使我非常驚訝。”
"We believe that this PDSS2 genetic variant is impacting coffee drinking through the regulation of the speed at which caffeine is metabolized," he said. "It has been observed before that higher levels of PDSS2 inhibits the expression of the genes metabolizing caffeine and thus the speed at which caffeine is degraded."
他說道：“我們認爲這種攜帶PDSS2基因突變是通過咖啡因的常規新陳代謝速度來影響咖啡的飲用量的，我們觀察到這種現象是在人體釋放更多的PDSS2來抑制咖啡因的代謝之前，因此咖啡因的代謝由此減慢。”
About 64% of American adults drink at least one cup of coffee a day, according to a 2015 Gallup poll.
根據2015年的蓋洛普調查顯示，約有64%的美國成年人每天至少要喝一杯咖啡。
For the new study, researchers analyzed medical and genetic data on 370 people from a small village in southern Italy, and 843 people from six villages in northeast Italy.
在這項新的研究中，研究者們分析了受調查者的醫學和遺傳數據，其中370人來自意大利南部的一個小村莊，843人來自意大利北部六個不同的村莊。
The researchers discovered that people with the PDSS2 variant reported consuming fewer cups of coffee than people without the variant.
研究者發現，體內攜帶PDSS2基因突變的人會比沒有攜帶這種基因突變的人少喝很多咖啡。
When the researchers replicated the study with a group of 1,731 study participants from the Netherlands, they noticed similar results.
當研究者們在荷蘭對1731名研究對象重複這項研究的時候，他們得出了相似的結果。
"This variant is very common, and around 50% of the European population has either one or two copies of it," Pirastu said. "More research is needed to determine the variant's prevalence in other populations as well as to clarify its biological link with caffeine."
皮拉斯圖說：“這種基因突變很常見，歐洲人口中大約有50%的人有一或兩種PDSS2的基因副本。我們需要更多的研究來判定這種記憶變體在其他人口中的廣泛性，同時弄清楚這種變體與咖啡因在生物學上的聯繫。”
