Several hundred taste buds develop and mature in the trench walls of the rat's vallate papilla during the first 3 months after birth. The objective of this investigation of taste bud development was to determine: (i) whether the vallate papilla has local growth zones where new taste buds form, (ii) whether new taste buds arise by the division of mature taste buds, (iii) how many days are requir...

Unilateral interruption of the chorda-lingual nerve led to a loss of most epithelial axons and to the deterioration of fungiform taste buds in the anterior portion of the tongue of albino rats, mongolian gerbils, and golden hamsters. By three weeks after surgery the following percentages of fungiform taste buds had completely disappeared: 71% in gerbils, 28% in rats, and 26% in hamsters. Residu...

Bilateral innervation allows more than 80% of the 610 vallate taste buds to survive removal of one IXth nerve in adult rats. Removal of both IXth nerves in neonatal or adult rats results in the absence of taste buds. In studying development, we found that removing or crushing one IXth nerve in three-day-old neonates profoundly decreased the number of vallate taste buds that subsequently develop...

In mammals, taste receptor cells are organized into taste buds on tongue. Taste buds are trophically maintained by taste neurons and under continuous renewal, even in adults. We found that the receptor for Sonic hedgehog (Shh), Patched1 (Ptc), was expressed around taste buds where cells were proliferating, and that Shh was expressed within basal cells of taste buds. Denervation caused the loss ...

Taste buds are dependent on innervation for normal morphology and function. Fungiform taste bud degeneration after chorda tympani nerve injury has been well documented in rats, hamsters, and gerbils. The current study examines fungiform taste bud distribution and structure in adult C57BL/6J mice from both intact taste systems and after unilateral chorda-lingual nerve transection. Fungiform tast...

Taste buds are assemblies of elongated epithelial cells, which are innervated by gustatory nerves that transmit taste information to the brain stem. Taste cells are continuously renewed throughout life via proliferation of epithelial progenitors, but the molecular regulation of this process remains unknown. During embryogenesis, sonic hedgehog (SHH) negatively regulates taste bud patterning, su...

Taste buds are assemblies of elongated epithelial cells, which are innervated by gustatory nerves that transmit taste information to the brain stem. Taste cells are continuously renewed throughout life via proliferation of epithelial progenitors, but the molecular regulation of this process remains unknown. During embryogenesis, sonic hedgehog (SHH) negatively regulates taste bud patterning, su...

ATP and its metabolites are important for taste signaling in taste buds, and thus a clearance system for them would play critical roles in maintenance of gustatory function. A previous report revealed that mRNAs for ecto-5'-nucleotidase (NT5E) and prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) were expressed by taste cells of taste buds, and NT5E-immunoreactivity was detected in taste cells. However, there w...

Efforts to unravel the mechanisms underlying taste sensation (gustation) have largely focused on rodents. Here we present the first comprehensive characterization of gene expression in primate taste buds. Our findings reveal unique new insights into the biology of taste buds. We generated a taste bud gene expression database using laser capture microdissection (LCM) procured fungiform (FG) and ...

In chickens, the sensory organs for taste are the taste buds in the oral cavity, of which there are ~240-360 in total number as estimated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). There is not an easy way to visualize all taste buds in chickens. Here, we report a highly efficient method for labeling chicken taste buds in oral epithelial sheets using the molecular markers Vimentin and α-Gustducin. ...