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"A SINGLE TASTE BUD is composed of four different types of cells, and each taste bud has at least 30 to 80 cells. Each taste bud contains receptor cells. Afferent nerves make contact with the receptor cells at the base of the taste bud. A single taste bud is innervated by several afferent nerves, while a single efferent fiber innervates several taste buds. In humans, the sense of taste is conveyed via three of the twelve cranial nerves." https://lnkd.in/egDzbYx View in LinkedIn

THE ORAL MICROBIOME includes over 600 species and numerous habitats. How this population of symbionts interacts with taste, food and satiety will be the subject of a later blog. View in LinkedIn

VARIABLE HUMAN TASTES. "Taste perception varies considerably. In the simplest case, a single concentration of a single compound at be given to 100 random individuals and their responses to the test so,union will vary everywhere from "it tastes like water" to "it is intolerably strong" and a continuum of responses in between." https://lnkd.in/e-Wmu4Y View in LinkedIn

THE EVERYDAY SENSATION of taste is a complex combination of inputs and molecular machinery that gets decoded in the brain as sensation. This wraps up a very brief tour of this awesome bio-design, and will contrast with next week's Fragment on the greater known complexity of the molecular basis of smell. View in LinkedIn

BIOLOGICAL CONUNDRUM. "Foods are consumed as macromolecules (e.g., proteins, starches and triglycerides) not isolated components. However, the gustatory system is configured to respond to single units and breakdown products such as amino acids, free fatty acids, and mono- and di-glycerides." https://lnkd.in/e6J_idS View in LinkedIn

"BITTER TASTE has the onerous task of preventing the ingestion of a large number of structurally distinct toxic compounds. Remarkably, despite the vastness of this repertoire, these compounds all evoke such a similar sensation that we simply know them as ‘bitter’. Bitter taste is mediated by a family of ~30 highly divergent GPCRs (the T2Rs). T2R genes are selectively expressed in subsets of TRCs distinct from those containing sweet and umami receptors." https://lnkd.in/eh5--gC View in LinkedIn

TASTE HAS BEEN HIJACKED at the expense of nutrition in our modern world. "There is a growing interest in developing novel taste stimuli and taste modifiers for humans and other animals." Cooking media almost exclusively focuses on taste, and rarely mentions nutrition. We are in an era of immense disconnect between the two. https://lnkd.in/epb6AAV View in LinkedIn

TASTE APPEARS LIMITED. Unlike other taste receptors, which are coded by two families of receptors each, the bitter receptor is coded by about 30 molecules. Its function is to protect against poisons and toxins. Regardless, the number of known taste receptors is very small (~40) and the taste repertoire equally small, at ~10 sensations upper limit. This is in sharp contrast to the olfactory system. https://lnkd.in/eh5--gC View in LinkedIn

"TASTE is in charge of evaluating the nutritious content of food and preventing the ingestion of toxic substances. Sweet taste permits the identification of energy-rich nutrients, umami allows the recognition of amino acids, salt taste ensures the proper dietary electrolyte balance, and sour and bitter warn against the intake of potentially noxious and/or poison- ous chemicals." https://lnkd.in/eh5--gC View in LinkedIn

If taste follows the illuminations of smell, it will turn out to be a more complex and nuanced system than some may believe. View in LinkedIn