Nutrient deprivation can lead to dramatic changes in feeding behavior, including acceptance of foods that are normally rejected. In flies, this behavioral shift depends in part on reciprocal sensitization and desensitization of sweet and bitter taste, respectively. However, the mechanisms for bitter taste modulation remain unclear. Here, we identify a set of octopaminergic/tyraminergic neurons,...

Human bitter taste is mediated by approximately 25 members of the human TAS2 receptor (hTAS2R) gene family. The hTAS2R genes are expressed in taste buds of gustatory papillae on the tongue surface. Because many naturally occurring bitter compounds are toxic, bitter taste receptors are believed to serve as warning sensors against the ingestion of toxic food compounds. An important question is wh...

Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) is widely cultivated as a vegetable and medicinal herb in many Asian and African countries. After the sequencing of the cucumber (Cucumis sativus), watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), and melon (Cucumis melo) genomes, bitter gourd became the fourth cucurbit species whose whole genome was sequenced. However, a comprehensive analysis of simple sequence repeats (SSRs...

The ability to detect bitter tastes is important for animals; it can help them to avoid ingesting harmful substances. Bitter taste perception is mainly mediated by bitter taste receptor proteins, which are encoded by members of the Tas2r gene family and vary with the dietary preference of a specific species. Although individuals with different genotypes differ in bitterness recognition capabili...

Chickens sense the bitter taste of structurally different molecules with merely three bitter taste receptors (Gallus gallus taste 2 receptors, ggTas2rs), representing a minimal case of bitter perception. Some bitter compounds like quinine, diphenidol and chlorpheniramine, activate all three ggTas2rs, while others selectively activate one or two of the receptors. We focus on bitter compounds wit...

Momordica charantia L. (Bitter gourd) is a flowering vine in the family of Cucurbitaceae. It contains an array of novel and biologically active phytochemicals including triterpenes, proteins and steroids. Medicinally, the plant has a long history of use by the indigenous people as a folk medicine. Bitter gourd is often used in Chinese cooking for its bitter flavor, typically in stir-fries, soup...

We study a dynamic market with asymmetric information that creates the lemons problem. We compare effi ciency of the market under different assumptions about the timing of trade. We identify positive and negative aspects of dynamic trading, describe the optimal market design under regularity conditions and show that continuous-time trading can be always improved upon.

Title: 1 Influence of stimulus and oral adaptation temperature on gustatory responses in 2 central taste-sensitive neurons 3 4 Authors: 5 Jinrong Li and Christian H. Lemon 6 7 Affiliations: 8 Department of Biology 9 The University of Oklahoma 10 11 Running head: 12 Influence of stimulus and adaptation temperature on taste 13 14 Address for correspondence: 15 Dr. Christian H. Lemon 16 Department...

Twelve white-rot fungi were grown in solid-state culture on lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) and citronella (Cymbopogon winterianus) bagasse. The two lignocellulosic substrates had 11% permanganate lignin and a holocellulose fraction of 58%. After 5 to 6 weeks at 20 degrees C, nine fungi produced a solid residue from lemon grass with a higher in vitro dry matter enzyme digestibility than the o...