Despite recent advances in the knowledge of interindividual taste differences, the underlying genetic backgrounds have remained to be fully elucidated. Much of the taste variation among different mammalian species can be explained by pseudogenization of taste receptors. Here I investigated whether the most recent disruptions of taste receptor genes segregate with their intact forms in modern hu...

Necturus taste buds contain two primary cell types: taste receptor cells and basal cells. Merkel-like basal cells are a subset of basal cells that form chemical synapses with taste receptor cells and with innervating nerve fibers. Although Merkel-like basal cells cannot interact directly with taste stimuli, recent studies have shown that Merkel-like basal cells contain serotonin (5-HT), which m...

Sour taste is detected by a subset of taste cells on the tongue and palate epithelium that respond to acids with trains of action potentials. Entry of protons through a Zn(2+)-sensitive proton conductance that is specific to sour taste cells has been shown to be the initial event in sour taste transduction. Whether this conductance acts in concert with other channels sensitive to changes in int...

BACKGROUND The gustatory system plays a critical role in determining food preferences, food intake and energy balance. The exact mechanisms that fine tune taste sensitivity are currently poorly defined, but it is clear that numerous factors such as efferent input and specific signal transduction cascades are involved. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Using immunohistochemical analyses, we show ...

Background. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between genetic taste sensitivity, dietary preferences and salivary flow rate in 6‒14-year-old children for identification of individuals at higher risk of developing dental caries. Methods. A total of 500 children 6‒14 years of age, of both genders, who reported to the Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, were included. Pro...

The ability or inability to taste the compound phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) is a classic inherited trait in humans and has been the subject of genetic and anthropological studies for over 70 years. This trait has also been shown to correlate with a number of dietary preferences and thus may have important implications for human health. The recent identification of the gene that underlies this phen...

Genetic studies of nicotine addiction in mice have utilized the oral self-administration model. However, it is unclear if strain differences in nicotine consumption are influenced by variation in bitter taste sensitivity. We measured both nicotine consumption and nicotine brief-access licking behavior in several commonly used inbred strains of mice that were previously shown to differ in nicoti...

In order to make recognition for the composite taste, the paper puts forward the research on the composite taste recognition method based on fuzzy neural network based on the wavelet transform. According to the wavelet transformation and the compression and extraction of the data of the taste signals that are collected by the sensor, we use the fuzzy neutral network as the recognition tool of t...

Information about taste signaling molecules is still insufficient to understand the mechanisms of taste signal transductions, while novel taste receptors have been found recently. There are two strategies to discover novel taste signaling related genes; one strategy is homology based cloning and another strategy is global gene screening. Homology based cloning has been mainly used to find out t...

Drosophila taste compounds with gustatory neurons on many parts of the body, suggesting that a fly detects both the location and quality of a food source. For example, activation of taste neurons on the legs causes proboscis extension or retraction, whereas activation of proboscis taste neurons causes food ingestion or rejection. We examined whether the features of taste location and taste qual...