Functional tuning mechanism of bitter taste receptors

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25891012
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Biophysics
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: TSUTSUI Kei 京都大学, 霊長類研究所, 研究員 (40714209)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-08-30 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 苦味受容体 / G蛋白質共役型受容体 / 感覚受容体

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In order to elucidate the mechanism by which sensory receptors tune their properties, we compared the ligand sensitivities of TAS2Rs of five species of NWM heterologously expressed in HEK293T cells by calcium imaging. We found that TAS2R1 and TAS2R4 orthologues differ in sensitivity among the NWM species for colchicine and camphor, respectively. These results raise the possibility that the different feeding ecologies of NWMs are at least in part associated to different sensitivities of their TAS2Rs. Moreover, we reconstructed ancestral receptors of the NWM TAS2R1 and TAS2R4 and measured the ligand sensitivity. The results revealed when the shifts in ligand sensitivity among species emerged in the course of molecular evolution and helped to identify candidate amino acid residues responsible for the shifts.

Free Research Field

生物物理学