The roles of genes in the bitter taste

Abstract

The aims of this review were to understand the roles of bitter taste genes in humans. Some of the peoples have the capacity to taste some chemical substance such as phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) while others cant not based on the dietary hazards and food preferences. There are two alleles responsible to express these phenotypes which are homozygous recessive. In human TAS2R38 genes located on the chromosome number 7 and consist of different nucleotide polymorphism that related to detection of the phenotype of different chemical compounds such as 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) and phenylthiocarbamide bitterness and this Gene is the member of the TAS2R genes which are eleven pseudogenes and twenty that has roles in many biological processes. There are many factors that affect the bitter taste such as food, age, sex, and different diseases. The mechanism of food bitter taste and genotype of TAS2R38 until know not well understood due to that the proof of relation between bitter taste sensitivity and food is harmful. there are many different diseases can impact the influence of taste such as neoplasm and lifestyle such as consumption of alcohol along with the use of medication, head trauma, upper tract infections. On the other hand, A relation between TAS2R38 genotype and meal preferences has been observed among children, however, no associations have been mentioned among older adults. Some previous research proved some vital points that show an association between type 1 of diabetes and phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) but other studies cannot demonstrate that. However, of other disease such as obesity is controversial but other studies reported to the relationship between them.

Keywords: TAS2R; TAS2R38; bitter taste receptors; chromosomes 7; heterozygotes; homozygotes; phenylthiocarbamide (PTC); polymorphisms.