Genetics of taste preferences

描述(申请人提供)：这个项目的目标是发现潜在的口味偏好的基因，特别是那些对钠、钙和酸的偏好负责的基因。在过去的15年里，人们使用小鼠模型对味觉传导的遗传和分子基础进行了一些基本的见解，但使用小鼠也有不利之处，仍然存在许多问题。这只老鼠有可能成为更好的模型。它传统上被用于味觉偏好实验，有大量关于老鼠生理、营养和学习机制的文献。问题是，直到最近，还没有研究老鼠的遗传工具，但这种情况已经改变了。该项目将利用一种新的家鼠资源来研究大鼠口味偏好的遗传基础。初步工作已经确定了在钠、钙和酸的偏好上与其背景菌株不同的共生大鼠品系。为了利用这一点，我们现在建议更好地表征共生体鼠品系的表型，并通过培育同源鼠系来分离相关基因。将调查同源基因区间内基因的表达模式，以评估它们对表型的潜在贡献。这些研究将导致发现和表征与口味偏好有关的基因。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to discover genes underlying taste preferences, particularly those responsible for the preferences for sodium, calcium, and acids. Over the last 15 yr, several fundamental insights into the genetic and molecular basis of taste transduction have been made using mouse models but there are disadvantages to using mice, and many questions remain. The rat has the potential to be a better model. It has traditionally been used for taste preference experiments, and there is a massive literature dealing with rat physiology, nutrition and learning mechanisms. The problem has been that until recently genetic tools for studying the rat have not been available, but this has changed. This project will take advantage of a new consomic rat resource to investigate the genetic basis of taste preferences in rats. Preliminary work has identified consomic rat strains that differ from their background strain in preferences for sodium, calcium and acids. To exploit this, we now propose to better characterize the phenotype of the consomic rat strains, and isolate the genes involved by breeding congenic rat lines. The expression patterns of genes in the congenic interval will be surveyed to evaluate their potential contribution to the phenotype. These studies will lead to the discovery and characterization of genes responsible for taste preferences.