| First Author | Zhao GQ | Year | 2003 |
| Journal | Cell | Volume | 115 |
| Issue | 3 | Pages | 255-66 |
| PubMed ID | 14636554 | Mgi Jnum | J:86474 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:2679938 | Doi | 10.1016/s0092-8674(03)00844-4 |
| Citation | Zhao GQ, et al. (2003) The receptors for mammalian sweet and umami taste. Cell 115(3):255-66 |
| abstractText | Sweet and umami (the taste of monosodium glutamate) are the main attractive taste modalities in humans. T1Rs are candidate mammalian taste receptors that combine to assemble two heteromeric G-protein-coupled receptor complexes: T1R1+3, an umami sensor, and T1R2+3, a sweet receptor. We now report the behavioral and physiological characterization of T1R1, T1R2, and T1R3 knockout mice. We demonstrate that sweet and umami taste are strictly dependent on T1R-receptors, and show that selective elimination of T1R-subunits differentially abolishes detection and perception of these two taste modalities. To examine the basis of sweet tastant recognition and coding, we engineered animals expressing either the human T1R2-receptor (hT1R2), or a modified opioid-receptor (RASSL) in sweet cells. Expression of hT1R2 in mice generates animals with humanized sweet taste preferences, while expression of RASSL drives strong attraction to a synthetic opiate, demonstrating that sweet cells trigger dedicated behavioral outputs, but their tastant selectivity is determined by the nature of the receptors. |
