The intensity of the taste of a food is affected mostly by the amount of sugars (mono- and disaccharides) or salt it contains. To season savory-tasting foods mainly table salt (NaCl) is used and to sweeten foods, sugars like sucrose are used. Foods with highly intense tastes are consumed in smaller amounts. The optimal taste intensity of a food is the intensity at which it is perceived as most ...

Understanding the mechanisms underlying gustatory detection of dietary sodium is important for the prevention and treatment of hypertension. Here, we show that Angiotensin II (AngII), a major mediator of body fluid and sodium homeostasis, modulates salty and sweet taste sensitivities, and that this modulation critically influences ingestive behaviors in mice. Gustatory nerve recording demonstra...

Jatropha is an important second-generation biofuel plant. Salinity is a major factor adversely impacting the growth and yield of several plants including Jatropha. SbNHX1 is a vacuolar Na⁺/H⁺ antiporter gene that compartmentalises excess Na⁺ ions into the vacuole and maintains ion homeostasis. We have previously cloned and characterised the SbNHX1 gene from an extreme halophyte, Salicornia brac...

The palatability and taste quality of pyrophosphates were evaluated in a series of behavioral and electrophysiological experiments. In two-bottle choice tests with water, rats strongly preferred some concentrations of Na3HP2O7 and Na4P2O7, moderately preferred some concentrations of K4P2O7 and Fe4(P2O7)3, and were indifferent to or avoided all concentrations of Ca2P2O7 and Na2H2P2O7. The contri...

Water is of fundamental importance for human life; access to water of good quality is of vital concern for mankind. Currently however, the situation is under severe pressure due to several stressors that have a clear impact on access to water. In the Arctic, climate change is having an impact on water availability by melting glaciers, decreasing seasonal rates of precipitation, increasing evapo...

Solar desalination systems are a promising solution to the water scarcity problem since majority of earth’s resources salty. With increasing focus on research, many innovative methods being developed extract salts from saline water. Energy consumption is significant concern in desalination, and renewable energy, particularly solar considered viable alternative fossil fuel energy. In this review...

[1] Climate dynamics during the marine isotope stage (MIS) 11 interglacial may provide information about how the climate system will evolve under the conditions of low‐amplitude orbital forcing that are also found during the late Holocene. New stable isotope and alkenone data are presented from southeast Atlantic Ocean Drilling Program Site 1085, providing detailed information on interglacial c...

Interactions between actin, an anionic polyelectrolyte, and lysozyme, a cationic globular protein, have been examined using a combination of synchrotron small-angle x-ray scattering and molecular dynamics simulations. Lysozyme initially bridges pairs of actin filaments, which relax into hexagonally coordinated columnar complexes comprised of actin held together by incommensurate one-dimensional...

[1] The real part of the dielectric permittivity of the Martian regolith was measured by the Thermal and Electrical Conductivity Probe (TECP) on the Phoenix lander. We interpret these data using laboratory measurements of permittivity as a function of H2O and salt content, soil type, and temperature. Due to variability in sensor coupling, we focus on data taken at one locality (“Vestri”) three ...