Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Bitter Taste Receptors

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules

Synonyms

T2R; Tas2R; TAS2R

Historical Background

Mammals are able to detect and interpret five main taste qualities: sweet, salty, sour, umami, and bitter, with a possible sixth modality (fat) having been recently identified (Liu et al. 2011). Like all sensory systems, those involved in the detection of taste are thought to have evolved as a tool to enhance survival in new environments and to increase fitness (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure 1

The five taste modalities and their receptors. Umami, sweet, and bitter taste receptors are members of the GPCR family, while salt taste perception is mediated by epithelial sodium channels and sour taste perception is mediated by acidic compounds acting at the PKD2L1 receptor. The sixth proposed taste modality, fat, is pictured with the GPR120 receptor, which has been implicated in its function along with GPR40

Full size image

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adler E, Hoon MA, Mueller KL, Chandrashekar J, Ryba NJ, Zuker CS. A novel family of mammalian taste receptors. Cell. 2000;100:693–702.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Andres-Barquin PJ, Conte C. Molecular basis of bitter taste: the T2R family of G protein-coupled receptors. Cell Biochem Biophys. 2004;41:99–112. doi:10.1385/CBB:41:1:099.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Avau B, Depoortere I. The bitter truth about bitter taste receptors: beyond sensing bitter in the oral cavity. Acta Physiol (Oxf). 2016;216:407–20. doi:10.1111/apha.12621.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Avau B, Rotondo A, Thijs T, Andrews CN, Janssen P, Tack J, et al. Targeting extra-oral bitter taste receptors modulates gastrointestinal motility with effects on satiation. Sci Rep. 2015;5:15985. doi:10.1038/srep15985.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bachmanov AA, Beauchamp GK. Taste receptor genes. Annu Rev Nutr. 2007;27:389–414. doi:10.1146/annurev.nutr.26.061505.111329.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bachmanov AA, Bosak NP, Lin C, Matsumoto I, Ohmoto M, Reed DR, et al. Genetics of taste receptors. Curr Pharm Des. 2014;20:2669–83.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Behrens M, Meyerhof W. Mammalian bitter taste perception. Results Probl Cell Differ. 2009;47:203–20. doi:10.1007/400_2008_5.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chandrashekar J, Mueller KL, Hoon MA, Adler E, Feng L, Guo W, et al. T2Rs function as bitter taste receptors. Cell. 2000;100:703–11.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Deshpande DA, Wang WC, McIlmoyle EL, Robinett KS, Schillinger RM, An SS, et al. Bitter taste receptors on airway smooth muscle bronchodilate by localized calcium signaling and reverse obstruction. Nat Med. 2010;16:1299–304. doi:10.1038/nm.2237.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Di Pizio A, Levit A, Slutzki M, Behrens M, Karaman R, Niv MY. Comparing Class A GPCRs to bitter taste receptors: Structural motifs, ligand interactions and agonist-to-antagonist ratios. Methods Cell Biol. 2016;132:401–27. doi:10.1016/bs.mcb.2015.10.005.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dong D, Jones G, Zhang S. Dynamic evolution of bitter taste receptor genes in vertebrates. BMC Evol Biol. 2009;9:12. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-9-12.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Feng P, Zheng J, Rossiter SJ, Wang D, Zhao H. Massive losses of taste receptor genes in toothed and baleen whales. Genome Biol Evol. 2014;6:1254–65. doi:10.1093/gbe/evu095.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Finger TE, Böttger B, Hansen A, Anderson KT, Alimohammadi H, Silver WL. Solitary chemoreceptor cells in the nasal cavity serve as sentinels of respiration. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003;100:8981–6. doi:10.1073/pnas.1531172100.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gaida MM, Mayer C, Dapunt U, Stegmaier S, Schirmacher P, Wabnitz GH, et al. Expression of the bitter receptor T2R38 in pancreatic cancer: localization in lipid droplets and activation by a bacteria-derived quorum-sensing molecule. Oncotarget. 2016;7(11):12623–32. doi:10.18632/oncotarget.7206.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lee RJ, Kofonow JM, Rosen PL, Siebert AP, Chen B, Doghramji L, et al. Bitter and sweet taste receptors regulate human upper respiratory innate immunity. J Clin Invest. 2014;124:1393–405. doi:10.1172/JCI72094.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Liu P, Shah BP, Croasdell S, Gilbertson TA. Transient receptor potential channel type M5 is essential for fat taste. J Neurosci. 2011;31:8634–42. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6273-10.2011.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Picone B, Hesse U, Panji S, Van Heusden P, Jonas M, Christoffels A. Taste and odorant receptors of the coelacanth–a gene repertoire in transition. J Exp Zool B Mol Dev Evol. 2014;322:403–14. doi:10.1002/jez.b.22531.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shaik FA, Singh N, Arakawa M, Duan K, Bhullar RP, Chelikani P. Bitter taste receptors: Extraoral roles in pathophysiology. Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2016; doi:10.1016/j.biocel.2016.03.011.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Singh N, Chakraborty R, Bhullar RP, Chelikani P. Differential expression of bitter taste receptors in non-cancerous breast epithelial and breast cancer cells. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2014;446:499–503. doi:10.1016/j.bbrc.2014.02.140.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wong GT, Ruiz-Avila L, Margolskee RF. Directing gene expression to gustducin-positive taste receptor cells. J Neurosci. 1999;19:5802–9.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Louis T. P. Martin & Denis J. Dupré

Authors
  1. Louis T. P. Martin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Denis J. Dupré
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Denis J. Dupré .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Biological Science, Department of Molecular Science and Tech College of Natural Science, Suwon, Korea (Republic of)

    Sangdun Choi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media LLC

About this entry

Cite this entry

Martin, L.T.P., Dupré, D.J. (2016). Bitter Taste Receptors. In: Choi, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6438-9_101498-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6438-9_101498-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6438-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation