The United States of America, as Represented by the Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services

University of Utah Research Foundation

Un-Kyung Kim

Dennis Drayna

Mark F Leppert

Identified herein are different forms of bitter receptor genes that occur in different humans. These alleles are generated by numerous coding single nucleotide polymorphisms (cSNP's) that occur within the members of the T2R gene family. Some SNP's cause amino acid substitutions, while others introduce chain termination codons, rendering the allele non-functional. Differences in these genes are believed to have a large effect on those individuals' sense of bitter taste, such that these individuals perceive the taste of bitter substances differently than the rest of the population. The ability to assay this allelic information is useful in the development of flavorings and flavor enhancers, as it can be used to define large groups and populations who perceive bitter tastes differently. This in turn allows the taste preferences of these groups to be addressed at the molecular level for the first time.

Variants of human taste receptor genes

Identified herein are different forms of sweet and umami receptor encoding sequences that occur in different human populations. In particular, there are provided several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that occur within the exons/coding sequence (and are therefore coding SNPs, cSNPs) of one of the three T1R genes. Some SNPs cause amino acid substitutions, while others introduce a chain termination codon, rendering a truncated product. Differences in these genes are believed to affect the sense of taste of individuals, such that individuals with different SNPs (or different haplotypes) are believed to perceive the taste of sweet or umami (e.g., glutamate) substances differently than the rest of the population. The ability to assay this allelic information is useful in the development of flavorings and flavor enhancers, as it can be used to define groups and populations who perceive tastes differently. This in turn allows the taste preferences of these groups to be addressed at the molecular level.

Human sweet and umami taste receptor variants

The invention provides isolated nucleic and amino acid sequences of a taste cell receptor that serves as a sensor for the bitter taste of phenylthiocarbamide (PTC), antibodies to such PTC taste receptor, methods of detecting such nucleic and amino acid sequences, and methods of screening for modulators of such PTC taste receptor.

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Gaithersburg, MD, United States of America

Un-Kyung Kim