Taste in Biological News

Cholesterol-busting bug with a taste for waste

A novel species of bacteria with cholesterol-busting properties has been discovered by scientists at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. Dr Oliver Drzyzga and colleagues isolated the new bug, called Gordonia cholesterolivorans , from sewage sludge. Their findings are reported in the cur...

New findings in taste and smell

Smell and taste play essential roles in our daily lives. The chemical senses serve as important warning systems, alerting us to the presence of potentially harmful situations or substances, including gas leaks, smoke, and spoiled food. Flavors and fragrances are also important in determining what...

Mollusks taste memories to build shells

Berkeley -- University of California, Berkeley, graduate student Alistair Boettiger has amassed a beautiful collection of seashells, but not by combing the beach. He created them in his computer. He and George Oster, a UC Berkeley biophysicist, along with University of Pittsburgh mathematical n...

Girls have superior sense of taste to boys

New knowledge: Girls have a better sense of taste than boys. Every third child of school age prefers soft drinks which are not sweet. Children and young people love fish and do not think of themselves as being fussy eaters. Boys have a sweeter tooth than girls. And teenagers taste differently. Th...

Taking a cue from breath fresheners, researcher develops new method for taste testing

Using the same concept behind commercial breath-freshening strips, a Temple University researcher has developed a new, easier method for clinical taste testing. Greg Smutzer, director of the Laboratory of Gustatory Psychophysics in the Biology Department of Temple's College of Science and Tech...

Researchers find new taste in fruit flies: carbonated water

That fruit fly hovering over your kitchen counter may be attracted to more than the bananas that are going brown; it may also want a sip of your carbonated water. Fruit flies detect and are attracted to the taste of carbon dioxide dissolved in water, such as water found on rotting fruits containin...

Your gut has taste receptors

Researchers in the Department of Neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified taste receptors in the human intestines. The taste receptor T1R3 and the taste G protein gustducin are critical to sweet taste in the tongue. Research now shows these two sweet-sensing proteins are als...

Meeting to highlight health impacts of smell and taste

What: The senses of smell and taste may have greater bearing on health than is generally accepted by both doctors and patients. Recent research suggests that these senses and their influence on behavior have implications for nutrition, aging, mental health, obesity, diabetes and safety. Researche...

International conference to release new findings on smell and taste

San Francisco - The International Symposium on Smell and Taste will be held at the Hyatt Embarcadero, in San Francisco July 21-26. Over 1,000 scientists will gather to present new information on the role of smell and taste in disease, nutrition and social interactions in humans as well as animals....

From delicious to death: Understanding taste

PHILADELPHIA (February 25, 2008) -- Despite the significance of taste to both human gratification and survival, a basic understanding of this primal sense is still unfolding. Taste provides both pleasure and protection. Often taken for granted, the sense of taste evaluates everything humans pu...

Gene key to taste bud development identified

Scientists have identified a gene that controls the development of taste buds. The gene, SOX2, stimulates stem cells on the surface of the embryonic tongue and in the back of the mouth to transform into taste buds, according to the researchers. Stem cells are immature cells that can develop into...

Bitter taste identifies poisons in foods

Scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center report that bitter taste perception of vegetables is influenced by an interaction between variants of taste genes and the presence of naturally-occurring toxins in a given vegetable. The study appears in the September 19 issue of Current Biology. Sc...

A human taste for rarity spells disaster for endangered species

The shady pursuit of endangered bird eggs made international headlines in May 2006 when Colin Watson, widely considered Britain's most notorious illegal egg collector, died after falling from a 12-meter tree, allegedly while hunting a rare egg. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds estimate...

Scientists solve sour taste proteins

A team led by Duke University Medical Center researchers has discovered two proteins in the taste buds on the surface of the tongue that are responsible for detecting sour tastes. While the scientific basis of other primary types of flavors, such as bitter and sweet, is known, this is the first s...

How taste response is hard-wired into the brain

Instantly reacting to the sweet lure of chocolate or the bitter taste of strychnine would seem to demand that such behavioral responses be so innate as to be hard-wired into the brain. Indeed, in studies with the easily manipulable fruit fly Drosophila, Kristin Scott and colleagues reported in the ...

Sweet 'water taste' paradoxically predicts sweet taste inhibitors

A scientific paradox linking artificial sweeteners such as saccharin with a sensory experience in which plain water takes on a sweet taste has guided researchers to an increased understanding of how humans detect sweet taste. Reporting in an advance online publication in Nature, scientists from...

Living taste cells produced outside the body

Researchers from the Monell Chemical Senses Center have succeeded in growing mature taste receptor cells outside the body and for the first time have been able to successfully keep the cells alive for a prolonged period of time. The establishment of a viable long-term model opens a range of new opp...

Have a taste for fat? Yes! A sensor in the mouth promotes preference for fatty foods

The sense of taste informs the organism about the quality of ingested food. It comprises five sub-modalities that perceive sweet, salt, sour, bitter, and umami stimuli. The possibility for an additional taste modality directed to lipid has often been suggested because many animals exhibit a sponta...

Bitter or sweet? The same taste bud can tell the difference

The tongue's ability to differentiate between sweet and bitter tastes may reside in the same taste bud cells, a new study reports. The study explains the discovery of a chemical messenger called neuropeptide Y (NPY) in taste bud cells. Though researchers have long known that NPY is active in the...

Evolution of taste receptor may have shaped human sensitivity to toxic compounds

Researchers have found new evidence suggesting that the ability to taste bitter compounds has been strongly advantageous in human evolution. Animals rely on chemical perception, including the senses of taste and smell, for protection against the harmful compounds found in nature. It is widely bel...

Children's taste sensitivity and food choices influenced by taste gene

Variation in a taste receptor gene influences taste sensitivity of children and adults, accounting for individual differences in taste preferences and food selection, report a team of researchers from the Monell Chemical Senses Center. In addition to genes, age and culture also contribute to taste ...

New supercomputer to reel in answers to some of Earth's problems

...icles in the air form clouds or break them up. Bacterial transformers: Communities of bacteria live and grow in the soil. And some bacteria have a taste for metals, a talent that can be used to clean up toxic substances in contaminated ground. Researchers use Chinook to understand the inner workings of...

Airway cells use 'tasting' mechanism to detect and clear harmful substances

...t receptors for bitter compounds that are found in taste buds on the tongue also are found in hair-like pro...s. In addition, the scientists showed that, unlike taste cells on the tongue, these airway cells do not nee...he nervous system to translate detection of bitter taste into an action that expels the harmful substance. ...

US-Mexico border wall could threaten wildlife species

...le to disease, drought and other weather extremes, and predation. We've seen one or two mountain lions knock down populations of sheep once they get a taste for mutton." The scientists say the wall along the U.S.-Mexican border is not the only issue for wildlife. Human activity, vehicular traffic, ampli...

American Chemical Society's weekly PressPac -- May 27, 2009

... Reducing salt in food without losing that salty taste Chemical & Engineering News Food manufa...hips to salad dressings while preserving the salty taste that consumers crave, according to an article sche...is the primary receptor responsible for human salt taste perception. Despite this challenge, companies a...

MSU discoveries upend traditional thinking about how plants make certain compounds

...the substrate for making monoterpenes. The difference is subtle, but the discovery will change the way terpene (compounds that are responsible for the taste and smell of many plants) research is done. The research is published in the May 25 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . ...

Apple enthusiasts welcome WineCrisp

...racteristic in the name so we added 'crisp' and named it WineCrisp", he added. Korban thinks the new apple will appeal to consumers because of its taste and to growers because of its resistance to the fungal disease apple scab, a primary nemesis of apple growers. Not having to use chemical fungicides t...

Chemical found in medical devices impairs heart function

...r the future of medical plastics manufacturing. In addition to loss of taste and memory, coronary bypass patients often complain of swelling and fatigue...ronary bypass surgery propelled his search for a root cause for the loss of taste phenomenon, reports principal investigator Artin Shoukas, Ph.D., professor ...

Laughing hyenas, wailing levees, the sound of cheese and blaring bagpipes

...y09/asa665.html 5) MUSIC WORDS In the world of wine tasting, people often use evocative words, such as "fruity" or "chalky," to convert a taste sensation into everyday language. Can one do the same thing for a piece of music? What are the words most used in describing an aural experience? MIT ...

Red pandas reveal an unexpected (artificial) sweet tooth

...lect structural variation in the red panda's sweet taste receptor. The findings may shed light on how taste preferences and diet choice are shaped by molecular differences in taste receptors. "The red panda's unique...

UGA licenses invention that kills food-borne pathogens in minutes

...o Brands. "We look forward to getting our improved product into the hands of industry." Importantly, Doyle said, the wash has no effects on smell, taste or appearance of the foods that are treated, even delicate produce. "The new product doesn't interfere with the shelf-life of sensitive foods," he sa...

Taste, odor intervention improves cancer therapy, according to Virginia Tech, Wake Forest study

...py and radiotherapy, may directly alter and damage taste and odor perception, possibly leading to patient m... a better understanding of the types and causes of taste and odor dysfunctions so that they can develop tre...ood science and technology at Virginia Tech, a bad taste in the mouth can lead to poor nutrition because pa...

'Delicious' new grape debuts

...cious', a new muscadine grape cultivar. 'Delicious' ripens early, produces high yields, and is disease-resistant. The black fruit features exceptional taste and texture with an edible skin, making it well-suited for fresh fruit consumption and the potential for wine production. The name 'Delicious' was sel...

Liking sweets makes sense for kids

...s increase. Children are programmed to like sweet taste because it fills a biological need by pushing them...uggest that children's heightened liking for sweet taste is related to their high growth rate and that swee...ntually stops. Based on the results of sensory taste tests, children were classified according to their...

Nutrigenomics -- developing personalized diets for disease prevention -- part 2 just published in OMICS

... the gap between omics science and society Ethical, legal and social issues (ELSIs) associated with commercialization and patenting in nutrigenomics taste is a nutritional gatekeeper for the body influencing which foodstuff is ingested or rejected Present state of the knowledge on genetic variation in t...

Study suggests salt might be 'nature's antidepressant'

...ption continued in excess because people liked the taste and it had become fairly inexpensive. Today, 77 pe...alt on board. Animals like us come equipped with a taste system designed to detect salt and a brain that re...t they have trouble doing so because they like the taste and find low-sodium foods bland. Another strong...

Names turn preschoolers into vegetable lovers

...found with adults. A restaurant study showed that when the Seafood Filet was changed to "Succulent Italian Seafood Filet," sales increased by 28% and taste rating increased by 12%. "Same food, but different expectations, and a different experience," said Wansink, author of "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat M...

Understanding natural crop defenses

... LA JOLLA, CA Ever since insects developed a taste for vegetation, plants have faced the same dilemma: use limited resources to out-compete their neighbors for light to grow, or, invest directly in def...

Analysis of fresh strawberries reveals consumer preferences

...bruary and March panels, respectively, with 62% to 63% female panelists. In 2007, 60 to 66 panelists (36% to 52% female panelists) participated in the taste panels. Panelist ages ranged from younger than 26 to older than 65 years old, with the majority of panelists between 36 and 55 years old. The senso...

NSF to fund water and environment technology center

...enormous potential benefits for the community," Pepper said. "It focuses on research that provides good quality drinking water with acceptable purity, taste and odor characteristics, and is safe for human health and welfare." Much of the strength of universities is in faculty expertise, and research fac...