The Scientific American has a recent story on a researcher, Ryan Summers, at the University of Iowa, who has discovered a new strain of bacteria called Pseudomonas Putida CBB5 that apparently has the ability to live off of caffeine.  This is the first time a bacteria with this capability has been identified which naturally leads to the question, have we just witnessed an example of evolution?

According to this video on how caffeine works, 90% of Americans eat or drink caffeine each day. With such widespread use, it is not surprising bacteria would acquire the ability to leverage this new food source.  After all, caffeine is made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen which makes it an ideal candidate for consumption if you are a bacteria looking for the four basic elements all forms of life need to survive.

But is this really a case of evolution?   Dr. Fazale Rana, makes the case that Pseudomonas Putida CBB5′s ability to consume caffeine is “nothing remarkable.”   According to Dr. Rana, there are four types of evolution, micro-evolution, speciation, macro-evolution and microbial evolution.  Pseudomonas Putida CBB5′s ability to consume caffeine is an example of microbial evolution and is not the controversial issue in the Theory of Evolution vs. Intelligent Design debate.  In a sense, bacteria (and viruses) are designed to adapt.

There are two other examples of microbial evolution that are probably more familiar to you.  The HIV virus had to evolve/adapt when it crossed species and bacteria often develop resistance to antibiotics. Furthermore, caffeine is a naturally occurring product that plants produce as an insect repellent and as Dr Rana notes, it’s possible Pseudomonas Putida CBB5 could have discovered caffeine well before humans.