Molecular basis of the sweet tooth?
Molecular basis of the sweet tooth?
复制标题
爱吃甜食的分子基础?
DOI:
10.1016/s0140-6736(01)07233-6
复制
发表时间:
2001
期刊:
影响因子:
--
通讯作者:
Kinnamon,SC
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Chaudhari,N;Kinnamon,SC
During this festive season the taste buds for sweetness will be working hard. What these taste buds detect as sweet includes aminoacids such as D-phenylalanine, and even some proteins. Because overconsumption of sugar and other high-calorie foods is associated with disorders such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, understanding the mechanisms of sweet taste is of broad relevance and importance. The relevance extends beyond the physiological effects of the saccharides. Then there are the therapeutic applications of sweet compounds. Sucrose for example, has been used to counter the innately bitter taste of many medicines, but recent studies suggest that sucrose releases endorphins, which can be used in pain management, particularly in newborns, for whom many analgesics are not suitable. 1 Taste buds are clusters of neuroepithelial sensory cells that are embedded in the cornified epithelium of the tongue and oral cavity. In some areas of the tongue, such as in the row of circumvallate papillae across the back of the tongue, taste buds are densely clustered. Elsewhere, they are scattered singly on the soft palate and in groups of two to four within the fungiform papillae that dot the anterior part of the tongue. Contrary to the “tongue maps” commonly displayed in textbooks, all areas of the tongue respond to all the taste qualities (eg, sweet, salty), although with variable efficiency. Within each taste bud are dozens of tastereceptor cells, each of which is able to detect and signal one or more taste qualities. When the apical microvillar tips of taste-receptor cells encounter sweet substances, they rapidly depolarise and fire action potentials. Such electrical activity presumably results in neurotransmitter release on to the afferent nerve fibres (cranial nerves VII and IX) that abut the bases of the taste-receptor cells. The receptor molecules that bind sweet substances are arguably among the most interesting of the molecular players that orchestrate this signalling cascade. They are probably the structures that confer specificity for recognition of sweet substances, and discrimination of these compounds from those that are not perceived as sweet. 2, 3There are now the beginnings of an understanding of the identity of sweet-taste receptors and their functional properties. Recent advances were made possible by the discovery over a decade ago that certain inbred strains of mice have a diminished preference for sweeteners, such as sucrose and saccharin. 4 By contrast, taster strains of mice, which have a higher preference for sweeteners, compared with non-taster strains, have lower thresholds for detection and larger responses in the afferent nerve. These differences stem to a large extent, from a locus, Sac, near the distal end of mouse chromosome 4. 5, 6 Last year, when the draft sequence of the human genome became available, several laboratories independently scanned a human chromosomal region syntenous to the map location of Sac, and discovered a gene, Tas1r3, that encodes a novel G-protein-coupled receptor, T1R3. The mouse homologue of Tas1r3 mapped as closely to Sac as available markers would allow, making it a plausible candidate gene at the locus7-11 T1R3, as well as two related orphan receptors, T1R1 and T1R2, are all expressed as mRNAs in taste buds, and their respective expression levels are similar between taster and non-