Study on the distribution of umami receptors on the tongue and its signal coding logic based on taste bud biosensor

Abstract

Taste signals are uniformly encoded and transmitted to the brain's taste center by taste buds, and the process has not been systematically studied for several decades. The aim of this work was to investigate the distribution of umami receptors on the tongue and its signal coding logic based on the taste bud biosensors. Taste bud biosensors were constructed by immobilizing the taste bud tissues from different tongue regions of the rabbit to the glassy carbon electrode surface; The Shennong information equations were used to analysis the pattern of umami receptors to encode ligands information; The signal amplification capabilities of two types umami receptors (T1R1/T1R3 and mGluRs) were analyzed for the two ligands (L-monosodium glutamate (MSG) and disodium 5'-inosinate (IMP)). The results showed that each taste bud biosensor could sense MSG and IMP with different response currents based on enzyme-substrate kinetics. There was only a small fraction of a great quantity of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) could be activated to encode MSG signal. Importantly, T1R1 was more expressed in the rostral tongue cells whose sensitivity to MSG was nearly 100 times stronger than that of caudal tongue cells. The method we proposed made it possible to reveal the distribution and signals coding logic of umami receptors for ligands, which showed great potential to explain the interaction mechanism of umami substances with their receptors more accurately and to develop of artificial intelligent taste sensory.

Keywords: Kinetic; Receptor; Signals coding; Taste bud biosensor; Umami.