How does bitterness acceptance work, according to science?

Scientists are uncovering the secrets of how our mouths perceive bitter taste. A new study details the structure of a key bitter taste receptor and finds evidence that cholesterol appears to play an important role in helping the receptor function.

Bitterness is one of the five basic tastes that humans can detect, along with sourness, sweetness, saltiness, and umami (the savory taste of meat). It was already known that our sense of bitter taste is primarily controlled by specific receptors known as type 2 taste receptors (TAS2R) located on the tongue and mouth. Among these receptors, TAS2R14 is particularly important and can identify more than 100 substances that confer bitter taste.

This new study was led by scientists at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and decided to take a closer look at TAS2R14 than ever before. Their discovery is published Published in Nature magazine on Wednesday.

“Scientists know little about the structural makeup of sweet, bitter, and umami taste receptors,” study author Yujun Kim, a pharmacologist and UNC postdoctoral fellow, said in the paper. statement From university. “By combining biochemical and computational methods, we discovered the structure of the bitter taste receptor TAS2R14 and the mechanism that initializes bitter taste sensation on the tongue.”

As is often the case with this type of basic research, the researchers encountered some unexpected facts. For example, they discovered that the TAS2R14 receptor has cholesterol within its binding site (the region of the molecule that can bind to another molecule). This site was found next to another site that was intended to be activated by specific bitter taste inducers. Researchers suspect that cholesterol stimulates TAS2R14, making it more easily activated by this substance, but TAS2R14 may have other functions as well.

The team’s research has helped scientists come closer to understanding important aspects of our sense of taste, but it also lays the groundwork for future research. Based on their findings, TAS2R14 may have other functions than simply helping us taste bitter foods.

Other studies on taste have yielded interesting results, including: Why is fat delicious?. In 2021, Gizmodo asked experts: Technology may be able to improve our taste buds. “Molecular receptors for all five basic tastes have now been identified,” one researcher told us at the time. “These can and are being used to find compounds that enhance or reduce their activity, leading, for example, to the identification of sweetness enhancers or bitterness blockers that can be added to foods and medicines.”

A version of this article first appeared on Gizmodo.