BIT
Bitter Taste Aversion
Class: I - Natural Selection
EPA Total Score: 28 /100
Chandrashekar, J., Mueller, K. L., Hoon, M. A., Adler, E., Feng, L., Guo, W., . . . Ryba, N. J. (2000). T2Rs function as bitter taste receptors. Cell, 100, 703-711.
Abstract: Bitter taste perception provides animals with critical protection against ingestion of poisonous compounds. In the accompanying paper, we report the characterization of a large family of putative mammalian taste receptors (T2Rs). Here we use a heterologous expression system to show that specific T2Rs function as bitter taste receptors. A mouse T2R (mT2R-5) responds to the bitter tastant cycloheximide, and a human and a mouse receptor (hT2R-4 and mT2R-8) responded to denatonium and 6-n-propyl-2-thiouracil. Mice strains deficient in their ability to detect cycloheximide have amino acid substitutions in the mT2R-5 gene; these changes render the receptor significantly less responsive to cycloheximide. We also expressed mT2R-5 in insect cells and demonstrate specific tastant-dependent activation of gustducin, a G protein implicated in bitter signaling. Since a single taste receptor cell expresses a large repertoire of T2Rs, these findings provide a plausible explanation for the uniform bitter taste that is evoked by many structurally unrelated toxic compounds.
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Supporting Evidence
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10/100
Submitted by DJGlass
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10/100
Submitted by DJGlass
10/100
Submitted by DJGlass
No one has (yet) rated this source as containing any supporting Hunter-Gatherer evidence for this EPA.
Supporting Evidence is evidence that suggests that this trait is an Evolved Psychological Adaptation (EPA) - i.e., that it has been shaped by natural selection to solve a particular adaptive problem.
Challenging Evidence
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0/100
Submitted by DJGlass
No one has (yet) rated this source as containing any challenging Cross-Cultural evidence for this EPA.
0/100
Submitted by DJGlass
0/100
Submitted by DJGlass
No one has (yet) rated this source as containing any challenging Hunter-Gatherer evidence for this EPA.
Challenging Evidence is evidence that suggests that this trait is not an EPA - e.g., that it is a product of cultural learning or genetic drift, or maybe it does not exist at all. However over each line of evidence for a description.