The receptors and coding logic for bitter taste
Abstract
The sense of taste provides animals with valuable information about the nature and quality of food. Bitter taste detection functions as an important sensory input to warn against the ingestion of toxic and noxious substances. T2Rs are a family of approximately 30 highly divergent G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that are selectively expressed in the tongue and palate epithelium and are implicated in bitter taste sensing. Here we demonstrate, using a combination of genetic, behavioural and physiological studies, that T2R receptors are necessary and sufficient for the detection and perception of bitter compounds, and show that differences in T2Rs between species (human and mouse) can determine the selectivity of bitter taste responses. In addition, we show that mice engineered to express a bitter taste receptor in 'sweet cells' become strongly attracted to its cognate bitter tastants, whereas expression of the same receptor (or even a novel GPCR) in T2R-expressing cells resulted in mice that are averse to the respective compounds. Together these results illustrate the fundamental principle of bitter taste coding at the periphery: dedicated cells act as broadly tuned bitter sensors that are wired to mediate behavioural aversion.
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Quinine, a cognate bitter ligand, produced strong attraction in mice with expression of a bitter receptor in sweet-sensing taste receptor cells.
“Most remarkably, quinine, a cognate bitter ligand, produced strong attraction in mice with expression of a bitter receptor in sweet-sensing taste receptor cells ([114](#B114)).”
From Food reward, hyperphagia, and obesity (2011) · cites this paper as [114]
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- Authors
- Mueller, K. L., Hoon, M. A., Erlenbach, I., Chandrashekar, J., Zuker, C. S., & Ryba, N. J. P.
- Affiliations
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Corresponding author
- Zuker, Charles S.
- Ryba, Nicholas J. P.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2005-03-10
- Volume
- 434
- Issue
- 7030
- Pages
- 225-229
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W1964468911
- Cited by
- 524
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 27 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 32
- FWCI
- 35.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- erratum (2007-03-15)
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Grass Foundation
- National Eye Institute
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Biochemical Analysis and Sensing Techniques
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Sensory Systems › Ion Channels and Receptors
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Sensory Systems › Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies
- Keywords
- bitter taste, G protein-coupled receptors, taste coding, toxin avoidance
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Food Preferences, Humans, Mice, Inbred BALB C, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Palate, Physical Stimulation, Species Specificity, Substrate Specificity, Taste, Tongue, Mice, Knockout, Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled, Mice
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