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The biochemical profile of coffee beans translates directly into quality traits, nutraceutical and health promoting properties of the coffee beverage. Ent -kaurene is the ubiquitous precursor for gibberellin biosynthesis in plants, but it also serves as an intermediate in specialized (i.e., secondary) diterpenoid metabolism that leads to a diversity of more than 1,000 different metabolites. Nutraceutical effects on human health attributed to diterpenes include antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, and anti-inflammatory properties. Cafestol (CAF) and kahweol (KAH) are two diterpenes found exclusively in the Coffea genus. Our objective was to identify and functionally characterize genes involved in the central step of ent -kaurene production. We identified 17 putative terpene synthase genes in the transcriptome of Coffea arabica . Two ent -copalyl diphosphate synthase ( CaCPS ) and three kaurene synthase ( CaKS ) were selected and manually annotated. Transcript expression profiles of CaCPS1 and CaKS3 best matched the CAF and KAH metabolite profiles in different tissues. CaCPS1 and CaKS3 proteins were heterologously expressed and functionally characterized. CaCPS1 catalyzes the cyclization of geranylgeranyl diphosphate (GGPP) to ent -copalyl diphosphate ( ent -CPP), which is converted to ent -kaurene by CaKS3. Knowledge about the central steps of diterpene formation in coffee provides a foundation for future characterization of the subsequent enzymes involved in CAF and KAH biosynthesis.

Coffee fruits grown in shade are characterized by larger bean size than those grown under full-sun conditions. The present study assessed the effects of shade on bean characteristics and sugar metabolism by analyzing tissue development, sugar contents, activities of sucrose metabolizing enzymes and expression of sucrose synthase-encoding genes in fruits of coffee (Coffea arabica L.) plants submitted to full-sun (FS) and shade (SH) conditions. Evolution of tissue fresh weights measured in fruits collected regularly from flowering to maturation indicated that this increase is due to greater development of the perisperm tissue in the shade. The effects of light regime on sucrose and reducing sugar (glucose and fructose) contents were studied in fresh and dry coffee beans. Shade led to a significant reduction in sucrose content and to an increase in reducing sugars. In pericarp and perisperm tissues, higher activities of sucrose synthase (EC 2.4.1.13) and sucrose-phosphate synthase (SPS: EC 2.4.1.14) were detected at maturation in the shade compared with full sun. These two enzymes also had higher peaks of activities in developing endosperm under shade than in full sun. It was also noted that shade modified the expression of SUS-encoding genes in coffee beans; CaSUS2 gene transcripts levels were higher in SH than in FS. As no sucrose increase accompanied these changes, this suggests that sucrose metabolism was redirected to other metabolic pathways that need to be identified.