Genetics of human taste perception.

GWAS of human bitter taste perception identifies new loci and reveals additional complexity of bitter taste genetics

Human perception of bitterness displays pronounced interindividual variation. This phenotypic variation is mirrored by equally pronounced genetic variation in the family of bitter taste receptor genes. To better understand the effects of common genetic variations on human bitter taste perception, we conducted a genome-wide association study on a discovery panel of 504 subjects and a validation ...

Sweet Taste Perception is Associated with Body Mass Index at the Phenotypic and Genotypic Level.

Investigations on the relationship between sweet taste perception and body mass index (BMI) have been inconclusive. Here, we report a longitudinal analysis using a genetically informative sample of 1,576 adolescent Australian twins to explore the relationship between BMI and sweet taste. First, we estimated the phenotypic correlations between perception scores for four different sweet compounds...

Drayna Genetics of Human Taste Perception

Crowdsourcing taste research: genetic and phenotypic predictors of bitter taste perception as a model

Understanding the influence of taste perception on food choice has captured the interest of academics, industry, and the general public, the latter as evidenced by the extent of popular media coverage and use of the term supertaster. Supertasters are highly sensitive to the bitter tastant propylthiouracil (PROP) and its chemical relative phenylthiocarbamide. The well-researched differences in t...

Genetics of individual differences in bitter taste perception: lessons from the PTC gene.

The ability or inability to taste the compound phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) is a classic inherited trait in humans and has been the subject of genetic and anthropological studies for over 70 years. This trait has also been shown to correlate with a number of dietary preferences and thus may have important implications for human health. The recent identification of the gene that underlies this phen...