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The Journal of Neuroscience, November 14, 2007, 27(46):12630-12640; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1168-07.2007

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Cellular/Molecular
Gustatory Expression Pattern of the Human TAS2R Bitter Receptor Gene Family Reveals a Heterogenous Population of Bitter Responsive Taste Receptor Cells

Maik Behrens,¹ Susann Foerster,¹ Frauke Staehler,¹ Jan-Dirk Raguse,² and Wolfgang Meyerhof¹

¹German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, 14558 Nuthetal, Germany, and ²Clinic and Polyclinic for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Plastic Surgery, Charité, Campus Virchow Hospital, 13353 Berlin, Germany

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Maik Behrens, German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, Department of Molecular Genetics, Arthur-Scheunert-Allee 114-116, 14558 Nuthetal, Germany. Email: behrens{at}dife.de

Human bitter taste is mediated by 25 members of the human TAS2 receptor (hTAS2R) gene family. The hTAS2R genes are expressed in taste buds of gustatory papillae on the tongue surface. Because many naturally occurring bitter compounds are toxic, bitter taste receptors are believed to serve as warning sensors against the ingestion of toxic food compounds. An important question is whether bitter taste receptor cells are a homogeneous, broadly tuned population of cells, which uniformly express all bitter taste receptor genes, or not. Gene expression analyses in rodents demonstrated an essentially overlapping expression of TAS2R genes indicating a broad tuning, whereas functional in vivo analyses suggest a narrow tuning. The present study demonstrates the expression of all 25 human TAS2R genes in taste receptor cells of human circumvallate papillae. As shown by in situ hybridization experiments, the expression of hTAS2R genes differs in both the apparent level of expression and the number of taste receptor cells expressing these genes, suggesting a heterogeneous bitter taste receptor cell population. Differences in gene expression levels were verified by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR experiments for a subset of hTAS2R genes. Direct evidence for the heterogeneity of bitter taste receptor cells is provided by dual-labeling in situ hybridizations with selected pairs of hTAS2R gene-specific probes. Functional coexpression experiments in heterologous cells show competition among hTAS2Rs, indicating a possible biological reason for the observed expression pattern. From the data, we conclude that human bitter taste receptor cells are tuned to detect a limited subset of bitter stimuli.

Key words: human bitter taste; gene expression; hTAS2R genes; heterologous expression; in situ hybridization; taste perception

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Received March 15, 2007; revised Sept. 19, 2007; accepted Oct. 1, 2007.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Maik Behrens, German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, Department of Molecular Genetics, Arthur-Scheunert-Allee 114-116, 14558 Nuthetal, Germany. Email: behrens{at}dife.de

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