title: Rebaudioside A and Rebaudioside D bitterness do not covary with Acesulfame K bitterness or polymorphisms inTAS2R9andTAS2R31.
abstract: In order to reduce calories in foods and beverages, the food industry routinely uses non-nutritive sweeteners. Unfortunately, many are synthetically derived, and many consumers have a strong preference for natural sweeteners, irrespective of the safety data on synthetic non-nutritive sweeteners. Additionally, many non-nutritive sweeteners elicit aversive side tastes such as bitter and metallic in addition to sweetness. Bitterness thresholds of acesulfame-K (AceK) and saccharin are known to vary across bitter taste receptors polymorphisms inTAS2R31. RebA has shown to activate hTAS2R4 and hTAS2R14in vitro.Here we examined bitterness and sweetness perception of natural and synthetic non-nutritive sweeteners. In a follow-up to a previous gene-association study, participants (n=122) who had been genotyped previously rated sweet, bitter and metallic sensations from rebaudioside A (RebA), rebaudioside D (RebD), aspartame, sucrose and gentiobiose in duplicate in a single session. For comparison, we also present sweet and bitter ratings of AceK collected in the original experiment for the same participants. At similar sweetness levels, aspartame elicited less bitterness than RebD, which was significantly less bitter than RebA. The bitterness of RebA and RebD showed wide variability across individuals, and bitterness ratings for these compounds were correlated. However, RebA and RebD bitterness did not covary with AceK bitterness. Likewise, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) shown previously to explain variation in the suprathreshold bitterness of AceK (rs3741845 inTAS2R9and rs10772423 inTAS2R31) did not explain variation in RebA and RebD bitterness. Because RebA activates hT2R4 and hT2R14, a SNP inTAS2R4previously associated with variation in bitterness perception was included here; there are no known functional SNPs forTAS2R14. In present data, a putatively functional SNP (rs2234001) inTAS2R4did not explain variation in RebA or RebD bitterness. Collectively, these data indicate the bitterness of RebA and RebD cannot be predicted by AceK bitterness, reinforcing our view that bitterness is not a simple monolithic trait that is high or low in an individual. This also implies consumers who reject AceK may not find RebA and RebD aversive, and vice versa. Finally, RebD may be a superior natural non-nutritive sweetener to RebA, as it elicits significantly less bitterness at similar levels of sweetness.
authors.affiliation: Sensory Evaluation Center, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA ; Department of Food Science, College of Agricultural Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Alissa L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: McGeary
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Hayes
keywords: Project GIANT-CS; bitterness; genetics; non-nutritive sweetener; rebaudioside A; rebaudioside D; taste phenotype