Taste Responses to Linoleic Acid: A Crowdsourced Population Study

Abstract

Dietary fats serve multiple essential roles in human health but may also contribute to acute and chronic health complications. Thus, understanding mechanisms that influence fat ingestion are critical. All sensory systems may contribute relevant cues to fat detection, with the most recent evidence supporting a role for the sense of taste. Taste detection thresholds for fat vary markedly between individuals and responses are not normally distributed. Genetics may contribute to these observations. Using crowdsourced data obtained from families visiting the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, our objective was to estimate the heritability of fat taste (oleogustus). A pedigree analysis was conducted with 106 families (643 individuals) who rated the fat taste intensity of graded concentrations of linoleic acid (LA) embedded in taste strips. The findings estimate that 19% (P = 0.043) of the variability of taste response to LA relative to baseline is heritable at the highest concentration tested.

Keywords: citizen science; crowdsourcing; fat taste; heredity estimate; oleogustus.

Figure 1.

Histogram of LA intensity scores. Histograms of the raw scores (transformed by square root) for each concentration of LA. The X-axis (range from 0 to 12) represents the square root of the raw taste intensity score at the indicated concentration of LA. The Y-axis plots the number of participants at each intensity score. (A) Control strip (0.0% LA); (B) Low concentration (0.06% LA); (C) Medium concentration (0.15% LA); and (D) High concentration (0.38% LA).

Figure 2.

Box plot of LA intensity scores. Box and whisker plot showing quartiles of raw intensity scores (transformed by square root). The median is represented by the middle line within each box with the second quartile the lower segment of the box and the third quartile the upper segment of the box. The whiskers of the plot represent the lower quartile (bottom whisker) and the upper quartile (top whisker). There were significant differences observed between each concentration tested as represented by *.

Figure 3.

Significant differences in taste response from baseline. Box and whisker plot of matched data. Box and whisker plot showing quartiles of raw intensity scores (transformed by square root). The median is represented by the middle line within each box with the second quartile the lower segment of the box and the third quartile the upper segment of the box. The whiskers of the plot represent the lower quartile (bottom whisker) and the upper quartile (top whisker). There were significant differences observed between each concentration tested when accounting for baseline response to the control (0.0%LA). Heritability analyses correlate similarity in the response between relatives with the degree of their relationship.

Figure 4.

Example pedigrees. Example pedigrees from the dataset are plotted along with their difference in taste response at LA 0.38% from the baseline level of LA 0%. Squares represent male relatives, circles represent female relatives. The score below each family member represents their difference in their taste score from the high concentration of LA (0.38%) from the control (0.0%) NA indicates the relative was not present for testing.