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Receptors and transduction in taste

Nature volume 413, pages 219–225 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Taste is the sensory system devoted primarily to a quality check of food to be ingested. Although aided by smell and visual inspection, the final recognition and selection relies on chemoreceptive events in the mouth. Emotional states of acute pleasure or displeasure guide the selection and contribute much to our quality of life. Membrane proteins that serve as receptors for the transduction of taste have for a long time remained elusive. But screening the mass of genome sequence data that have recently become available has provided a new means to identify key receptors for bitter and sweet taste. Molecular biology has also identified receptors for salty, sour and umami taste.

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Figure 1: Morphology of taste buds (rat).
Figure 2
Figure 3: Transduction of bitter taste as elicited by a variety of ligands.
Figure 4: Molecules involved in the transduction of sweet taste.

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Acknowledgements

Owing to limitations of space, the important work of many colleagues could not be cited, for which I apologize. I thank S. C. Kinnamon and R. F. Margolskee for comments.

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    Bernd Lindemann

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Lindemann, B. Receptors and transduction in taste. Nature 413, 219–225 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35093032

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