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Team:UIUC Illinois/Project/Future
From 2014.igem.org
Future Directions
"Biology has atleast 50 more interesting years
An Introduction
Imagine... Imagine drinking a cup of coffee. You stolidly sip your espresso and soon enough you feel a warm sensation cajole your body into getting that assignment done. However, you notice you're fidgeting uncontrollably, the room starts spinning and you begin to vomit. Ambulances, the noises are familiar, you've just seized. You're a dog.
What just happened?
Canines and many small animals are incapable of metabolizing theobromine and related stimulants as fast as humans can. Chocolate contains theobromine, an alkaloid that has stimulant properties. An excess of the stimulant builds up and begins to overstimulate the animal, thus leading to many malicious side effects. Ranging from slight nausea to death, consumption of these compounds are harmful for the animal. Chocolate can affect the animal regardless of the amount administered. Even the smallest amounts can produce side affects like diarrhea. In fact, theobromine has been employed to ward off pests of the same genus as canines: "Results indicate that mixtures of theobromine and caffeine have the potential to be developed into a selective, effective, and socially acceptable toxicant for the control of pest coyotes."[1] Caffeine in humans is degraded via a cascade mediated by Cytochrome P450. This is the primary molecule that allows for xanthine demethylation. In canines and smaller species, the cytochromes are available, however altered in a way that prevents caffeine degradation! Despite sequence homology to Human's P450, a canine's metabolism does not function similarly!
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