Taste phenotypes and implications for food and beverage behaviour

味觉表型及其对食品和饮料行为的影响

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-04356
• 负责人: Pickering, Gary
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 依托单位: Brock University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=566467
• 关键词: Taste; phenotypes; implications; food; beverage

The flavour of food and beverages strongly influences their liking and consumption, and consequently a range of nutritional and health outcomes. Therefore, differences between individuals in their perception of chemosensory stimuli (taste, smell and touch, which together form the construct of flavour) can associate with differences in habitual dietary intake and risk of diet-related disease. For example, individuals who sense dietary sugar and fat less intensely may require them in higher concentrations to reach optimal liking and thus habitually consume greater amounts, increasing their risk of energy over-consumption, obesity and related disease. Arguably, the most important factor accounting for differences between people in perception of chemosensory stimuli is genetic variation. Two taste phenotypes believed to play important roles in chemosensation are PROP responsiveness and thermal tasting (TT). PROP responsiveness has been used as a marker of genetic variability in the perception of taste for some time. Individuals are often classified as PROP non-tasters (those for whom PROP elicits no or slight bitterness), PROP medium-tasters (those for whom PROP is mildly bitter) or PROP super-tasters (those for whom PROP is intensely bitter). Differential bitterness of PROP associates with variation in the TAS2R38 gene. Importantly, heightened responsiveness to PROP (e.g. supertasting) is associated with greater responsiveness to and discrimination between a wide range of sensations elicited by food and alcoholic beverages. By contrast, TT is a relatively new marker of individual variation in oral sensation, and refers to the capacity of many individuals to experience ‘phantom’ tastes when a small area of the tongue is heated and/or cooled. Evidence from Trpm5 knockout mice suggests that TRPM5, a TRP superfamily cation channel, plays a role in TT. Importantly, not only do thermal tasters perceive a taste sensation from thermal stimuli, they also rate tastes and chemesthetic sensations more intense than thermal non-tasters; a finding that extends to some alcoholic beverages. How these differences in chemosensation (particularly TT) are reflected in liking, preference and intake of food and alcoholic beverages, has only been partially explored in the literature, and forms the basis of this research proposal. The primary short-term objectives here are to: (1) determine if TT and PROP responsiveness associate with enhanced retronasal olfaction and finer discrimination of oral sensations, (2) characterise TT sub-types, (3) identify the key genetic variations associated with TT in humans, (4) elucidate whether TT predicts liking and perception of sampled foods, and (5) examine the relationships between these taste phenotypes and behaviour towards foods and beverages linked to habitual diet-related disease risk. The long-term objective is to more fully understand biologically based variation in flavour perception of food and beverages between people. Most of the $140 billion of food consumed annually in Canada is produced domestically; the results from this research will eventually assist Canadian producers to optimise the flavour and acceptance of their products, and increase market share through improved selection of raw materials and production practices, and innovative approaches to segmenting the market based on taste phenotypes. Additionally, identifying the genes and taste phenotype characteristics that associate with alcohol use/misuse and habitual diet-related disease will allow Canada to instigate appropriate screening and preventative interventions.

食品和饮料的风味强烈影响他们的喜好和消费，从而影响一系列营养和健康结果。因此，个体之间对化学感觉刺激（味觉、嗅觉和触觉，它们共同构成了风味）的感知差异可能与习惯性饮食摄入量和饮食相关疾病风险的差异有关。例如，那些对饮食中的糖和脂肪感觉不那么强烈的人可能需要更高浓度的糖和脂肪来达到最佳喜好，从而习惯性地消耗更多的糖和脂肪，增加了他们能量过度消耗、肥胖和相关疾病的风险。可以说，最重要的因素占人之间的差异，在感知化学感觉刺激是遗传变异。据信在化学感觉中起重要作用的两种味觉表型是PROP反应性和热味觉（TT）。一段时间以来，PROP反应性已被用作味觉感知中遗传变异性的标志。个体通常被分类为PROP非味觉者（PROP没有苦味或轻微苦味的人）、PROP中等味觉者（PROP轻微苦味的人）或PROP超级味觉者（PROP强烈苦味的人）。PROP的不同苦味与TAS 2 R38基因的变异有关。重要的是，对PROP的反应性增强（例如，超级品尝）与对食物和酒精饮料引起的各种感觉的更大反应和区分有关。相比之下，TT是一个相对较新的口腔感觉个体差异的标志物，是指当舌头的一小部分被加热和/或冷却时，许多个体体验到“幻影”味道的能力。来自Trpm 5敲除小鼠的证据表明，TRPM 5，TRP超家族阳离子通道，在TT中起作用。重要的是，热味觉者不仅从热刺激中感知味觉，他们还比热非味觉者更强烈地感受到味觉和化学感觉;这一发现延伸到一些酒精饮料。这些差异在化学感觉（特别是TT）是如何反映在喜欢，偏好和摄入的食物和酒精饮料，只有部分探讨在文献中，并形成本研究建议的基础。这方面的主要短期目标是：（1）确定TT和PROP反应性是否与增强的鼻后嗅觉和更精细的口腔感觉辨别相关，（2）确定TT亚型，（3）鉴定人类中与TT相关的关键遗传变异，（4）阐明TT是否预测对采样食物的喜好和感知，以及（5）检查这些味觉表型和对与习惯性饮食相关疾病风险相关的食物和饮料的行为之间的关系。长期目标是更全面地了解人与人之间对食物和饮料的风味感知的生物学差异。加拿大每年消费的1400亿美元食品中，大部分是国内生产的;这项研究的结果最终将帮助加拿大生产商优化其产品的风味和接受度，并通过改进原材料和生产实践的选择以及基于口味表型细分市场的创新方法来增加市场份额。此外，确定与酒精使用/滥用和习惯性饮食相关疾病相关的基因和味觉表型特征将使加拿大能够进行适当的筛查和预防干预。