Effects of zinc deficiency on the transduction of taste sensation

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Taste disorders have been linked to zinc deficiency. Zinc plays structural roles in so called Zinc fingers. Zinc fingers are exploited by transcription factors for interacting with DNA and regulating the activity of genes. Although the mechanisms of transcriptional regulation of the taste receptor genes have not been revealed, it is possible that the zinc is concerned with the transcriptional regulation of taste receptor genes. Therefore, we examined the molecular mechanisms regulating the promoter of human umami and sweet receptor, T1R3 gene in a human intrahepatic bile duct carcinoma cell line, H_uCCT1. The luciferase reporter assay showed that the 226-bp region upstream of the ATG had promoter activity.