Genetically variable taste sensitivity to D-amino acids in mice.
Behavioral and neural responses to D-amino acids were compared between two inbred strains, C57BL and BALB mice. In both strains, an aversion conditioned to D-valine, D-leucine, D-methionine, D-histidine or D-tryptophan generalized to sucrose, whereas an aversion to D-alanine or D-serine did not generalize to sucrose. Generalization patterns across various test stimuli for each of these 7 D-amino acids were significantly correlated between two strains. However, an aversion conditioned to D-phenylalanine generalized to sucrose in C57BL mice, but not in BALB mice. Application of a proteolytic enzyme, Pronase E, to the tongue reduced chorda tympani responses to sucrose and D-amino acids to which a conditioned aversion generalized to sucrose. Again, only in C57BL mice, Pronase inhibited D-phenylalanine responses. These comparable results indicate that sweet taste response is genetically highly variable only to D-phenylalanine among 8 D-amino acids tested.
Ninomiya
Y
Y
Department of Oral Physiology, Asahi University School of Dentistry, Gifu, Japan.
Nomura
T
T
Katsukawa
H
H
D000596:Amino Acids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects; D002814:Chorda Tympani Nerve / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D010649:Phenylalanine / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000494:pharmacology; D011402:Pronase / Q000494:pharmacology; D013395:Sucrose / Q000494:pharmacology; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*; D014059:Tongue / Q000294:innervation
D000596:Amino Acids; D010649:Phenylalanine; D013395:Sucrose; D011402:Pronase