BIOB51H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Tas1R2, Taste Receptor, Tas2R38
4 Jul 2017
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Document Summary
Variation between individuals that can be explained by differences the individuals have in their dna (page 149). Heritable variation can be explained by genetics and amino acids. For example, humans, mice, and cats vary in their taste. There is a similarity of sweet receptors between species. The species pair with the highest similarity between receptor protein t1r2 is mouse-rat. Between the receptor gene tas1r2, mouse-rat has the highest similarity. Exon 3 of cat tas1r2 is 453 bp long but human tas1r2 is 777 bp because there is a microdeletion in exon: that is why cats may be indifferent to sweets compared to humans. In functional taste receptors heteromers form between t1r2 and t1r3 but cat tas1r2 gene does not make a protein product and so the sweet taste receptor in cats is not functional. Taste receptors expressed in taste receptor cells: salty (enac, etc), sour (asics, hcn, etc), bitter (t2r), sweet (t1r2/t1r3), and umami (t1r1/t1r3).
