title: Human biology of taste.
abstract: Taste or gustation is one of the 5 traditional senses including hearing, sight, touch, and smell. The sense of taste has classically been limited to the 5 basic taste qualities: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami or savory. Advances from the Human Genome Project and others have allowed the identification and determination of many of the genes and molecular mechanisms involved in taste biology. The ubiquitous G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) make up the sweet, umami, and bitter receptors. Although less clear in humans, transient receptor potential ion channels are thought to mediate salty and sour taste; however, other targets have been identified. Furthermore, taste receptors have been located throughout the body and appear to be involved in many regulatory processes. An emerging interplay is revealed between chemical sensing in the periphery, cortical processing, performance, and physiology and likely the pathophysiology of diseases such as diabetes.
authors.affiliation: PepsiCo g-FIT, 3 Skyline Drive, Hawthorne, CA 10532, United States. stephen. gravina@pepsico.com
authors.forename: Stephen A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Gravina
authors.forename: Gregory L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Yep
authors.forename: Mehmood
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Khan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / Q000502:physiology*; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*; D013650:Taste Buds / Q000502:physiology*; D055697:Taste Perception / Q000502:physiology; D050051:Transient Receptor Potential Channels / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled; D050051:Transient Receptor Potential Channels