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Bitter taste receptors of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata)

Despite the important role of bitter taste for the rejection of potentially harmful food sources, birds have long been suspected to exhibit inferior bitter tasting abilities. Although more recent reports on the bitter recognition spectra of several bird species have cast doubt about the validity of...

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Autores principales: Kumar, Praveen, Redel, Ulrike, Lang, Tatjana, Korsching, Sigrun I., Behrens, Maik
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10582322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37860623
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2023.1233711
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author Kumar, Praveen
Redel, Ulrike
Lang, Tatjana
Korsching, Sigrun I.
Behrens, Maik
author_facet Kumar, Praveen
Redel, Ulrike
Lang, Tatjana
Korsching, Sigrun I.
Behrens, Maik
author_sort Kumar, Praveen
collection PubMed
description Despite the important role of bitter taste for the rejection of potentially harmful food sources, birds have long been suspected to exhibit inferior bitter tasting abilities. Although more recent reports on the bitter recognition spectra of several bird species have cast doubt about the validity of this assumption, the bitter taste of avian species is still an understudied field. Previously, we reported the bitter activation profiles of three zebra finch receptors Tas2r5, -r6, and –r7, which represent orthologs of a single chicken bitter taste receptor, Tas2r1. In order to get a better understanding of the bitter tasting capabilities of zebra finches, we selected another Tas2r gene of this species that is similar to another chicken Tas2r. Using functional calcium mobilization experiments, we screened zebra finch Tas2r1 with 72 bitter compounds and observed responses for 7 substances. Interestingly, all but one of the newly identified bitter agonists were different from those previously identified for Tas2r5, -r6, and –r7 suggesting that the newly investigated receptor fills important gaps in the zebra finch bitter recognition profile. The most potent bitter agonist found in our study is cucurbitacin I, a highly toxic natural bitter substance. We conclude that zebra finch exhibits an exquisitely developed bitter taste with pronounced cucurbitacin I sensitivity suggesting a prominent ecological role of this compound for zebra finch.
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spelling pubmed-105823222023-10-19 Bitter taste receptors of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) Kumar, Praveen Redel, Ulrike Lang, Tatjana Korsching, Sigrun I. Behrens, Maik Front Physiol Physiology Despite the important role of bitter taste for the rejection of potentially harmful food sources, birds have long been suspected to exhibit inferior bitter tasting abilities. Although more recent reports on the bitter recognition spectra of several bird species have cast doubt about the validity of this assumption, the bitter taste of avian species is still an understudied field. Previously, we reported the bitter activation profiles of three zebra finch receptors Tas2r5, -r6, and –r7, which represent orthologs of a single chicken bitter taste receptor, Tas2r1. In order to get a better understanding of the bitter tasting capabilities of zebra finches, we selected another Tas2r gene of this species that is similar to another chicken Tas2r. Using functional calcium mobilization experiments, we screened zebra finch Tas2r1 with 72 bitter compounds and observed responses for 7 substances. Interestingly, all but one of the newly identified bitter agonists were different from those previously identified for Tas2r5, -r6, and –r7 suggesting that the newly investigated receptor fills important gaps in the zebra finch bitter recognition profile. The most potent bitter agonist found in our study is cucurbitacin I, a highly toxic natural bitter substance. We conclude that zebra finch exhibits an exquisitely developed bitter taste with pronounced cucurbitacin I sensitivity suggesting a prominent ecological role of this compound for zebra finch. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-10-04 /pmc/articles/PMC10582322/ /pubmed/37860623 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2023.1233711 Text en Copyright © 2023 Kumar, Redel, Lang, Korsching and Behrens. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Physiology
Kumar, Praveen
Redel, Ulrike
Lang, Tatjana
Korsching, Sigrun I.
Behrens, Maik
Bitter taste receptors of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata)
title Bitter taste receptors of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata)
title_full Bitter taste receptors of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata)
title_fullStr Bitter taste receptors of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata)
title_full_unstemmed Bitter taste receptors of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata)
title_short Bitter taste receptors of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata)
title_sort bitter taste receptors of the zebra finch (taeniopygia guttata)
topic Physiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10582322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37860623
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2023.1233711
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