PTC Genes Vs Bitter Taste

Nearly all human beings are born with the same basic sense of taste. Tastebuds, which are small round sensory organs covering the tongue throat, and roof of mouth, allow humans to detect thousands of different flavors. In fact, the average human has about 10,000 taste buds each containing over 100 microvilli which are tiny hairlike taste receptor cells (Dowshen). The many different types of microvilli each allow for the tasting of a specific flavor including sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami. Because taste is a chemical sense, the flavor someone perceives actually depends on how the chemical compounds in food are able to bind to the the microvilli cells. Compounds which bind strongly to a cell tend to taste much more intense than those

First discovered in 2003, the gene which determines whether a person has the ability to taste PROP or not is called TAS2R38.("PTC Genes and Bitter Taste "). Considered to be one of the most important finds relating to PROP tasting, this gene has both a non-tasting allele and the tasting allele which are essentially alternative forms of the same gene created through mutations ("PTC Genes and Bitter Taste). Each of these alleles codes for a slightly different shaped taste receptor protein, determining how strongly the protein can bind to the PROP. This in turn affects the intensity to which someone tastes the substance("PTC Genes and Bitter Taste "). It has also been found that people with a higher number of fungiform papillae, a type of taste bud related to tasting bitterness, are more likely to taste PROP (Griffith 23). Fungiform papillae are the most numerous type of the four papillae tastebuds present of the tongue and are largely responsible for tasting bitterness, sourness, and also sweetness ("Fungiform Papillae"). Although they are scattered all over the tongue, the mushroom shaped fungiform papillae are most highly concentrated near the tip and along the sides ("Fungiform Papillae"). One simple experiment which allows scientist to determine the the density of papillae on someone's tongue involves covering the tongue with blue food dye and counting the number of papillae found within a specific area. Although this experiment has been recreated several times, under varying conditions, there has been a consistent correlation between an above average number of the taste buds and PROP tasting ability. Another interesting find related to this topic is that those who taste PROP as highly bitter are also