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Biology Faculty Articles
Title
Analyses of Sweet Receptor Gene (Tas1r2) and Preference for Sweet Stimuli in Species of Carnivora
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-2009
Publication Title
Journal of Heredity
Keywords
Carnivore, Diet, Sweeteners, Sweet receptor, Taste testing
ISSN
0022-1503
Volume
100
Issue/No.
Suppl. 1
First Page
S90
Last Page
S100
Abstract
The extent to which taste receptor specificity correlates with, or even predicts, diet choice is not known. We recently reported that the insensitivity to sweeteners shown by species of Felidae can be explained by their lacking of a functional Tas1r2 gene. To broaden our understanding of the relationship between the structure of the sweet receptors and preference for sugars and artificial sweeteners, we measured responses to 12 sweeteners in 6 species of Carnivora and sequenced the coding regions of Tas1r2 in these same or closely related species. The lion showed no preference for any of the 12 sweet compounds tested, and it possesses the pseudogenized Tas1r2. All other species preferred some of the natural sugars, and their Tas1r2 sequences, having complete open reading frames, predict functional sweet receptors. In addition to preferring natural sugars, the lesser panda also preferred 3 (neotame, sucralose, and aspartame) of the 6 artificial sweeteners. Heretofore, it had been reported that among vertebrates, only Old World simians could taste aspartame. The observation that the lesser panda highly preferred aspartame could be an example of evolutionary convergence in the identification of sweet stimuli.
Additional Comments
National Institutes of Health grant #: R01DC00882
NSUWorks Citation
Li, Xia; Dieter Glaser; Weihua Li; Warren E. Johnson; Stephen J. O'Brien; Gary K. Beauchamp; and Joseph G. Brand. 2009. "Analyses of Sweet Receptor Gene (Tas1r2) and Preference for Sweet Stimuli in Species of Carnivora." Journal of Heredity 100, (Suppl. 1): S90-S100. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cnso_bio_facarticles/479
ORCID ID
0000-0001-7353-8301
ResearcherID
N-1726-2015
Comments
©The American Genetic Association. 2009. All rights reserved.