Genetics of taste preferences

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目的目标是发现味觉偏好的基因，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，已经用小鼠模型对味觉转导的遗传和分子基础进行了一些基本的了解，但是使用小鼠存在缺点，并且仍然存在许多问题。老鼠有可能成为更好的模型。传统上，它被用于味觉偏好实验，并且有大量的文献涉及老鼠的生理，营养和学习机制。问题是，直到最近，研究老鼠的遗传工具还没有出现，但这种情况已经改变了。本项目将利用一种新的经济鼠资源来研究大鼠味觉偏好的遗传基础。初步工作已经确定了不同于背景菌株的经济大鼠菌株，它们对钠、钙和酸的偏好不同。为了利用这一点，我们现在建议更好地表征经济大鼠菌株的表型，并通过培育同源大鼠系来分离相关基因。基因在同源区间的表达模式将被调查，以评估其对表型的潜在贡献。这些研究将导致发现和表征负责味觉偏好的基因。

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.