小柯机器人

近日，美国哥伦比亚大学Charles S. Zuker及其小组的鉴定出舌头上的酸味感知受体。这一研究成果2019年9月19日在线发表在国际学术期刊《细胞》上。

研究人员发现离子通道Otopetrin-1，一个通常参与耳前庭系统重力感的质子选择性通道，对味觉系统中的酸味感应至关重要。研究人员证明Otop1基因的敲除消除了酸敏感味觉受体细胞（TRC）的酸反应。此外，研究人员表明，设计用于在甜味TRC中表达otopetrin-1的小鼠具有甜味细胞，其也响应酸性刺激。接下来，研究人员在遗传上鉴定出味觉神经节神经元介导五种基本味道品质中的每一种，并证明酸味使用其舌头TRC中专用的感知味蕾来精细调节大脑中的味觉神经元以触发厌恶行为。

据介绍，感知酸味的能力为生物提供了重要的感官信号，从而防止摄入未成熟、变质或发酵的食物。口腔中的味觉和体感受体引发响应酸刺激的厌恶行为。

附：英文原文

Title: Sour Sensing from the Tongue to the Brain

Author: Jin Zhang, Hao Jin, Wenyi Zhang, Cheng Ding, Sean O’Keeffe, Mingyu Ye, Charles S. Zuker

Issue&Volume: 19 September 2019

Abstract: The ability to sense sour provides an important sensory signal to prevent the ingestion of unripe, spoiled, or fermented foods. Taste and somatosensory receptors in the oral cavity trigger aversive behaviors in response to acid stimuli. Here, we show that the ion channel Otopetrin-1, a proton-selective channel normally involved in the sensation of gravity in the vestibular system, is essential for sour sensing in the taste system. We demonstrate that knockout of Otop1 eliminates acid responses from sour-sensing taste receptor cells (TRCs). In addition, we show that mice engineered to express otopetrin-1 in sweet TRCs have sweet cells that also respond to sour stimuli. Next, we genetically identified the taste ganglion neurons mediating each of the five basic taste qualities and demonstrate that sour taste uses its own dedicated labeled line from TRCs in the tongue to finely tuned taste neurons in the brain to trigger aversive behaviors.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.031

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30950-X