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Science 291 (5508): 1557-1560

Copyright © 2001 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Taste Receptor Cells That Discriminate Between Bitter Stimuli

Alejandro Caicedo,13* Stephen D. Roper124

Recent studies showing that single taste bud cells express multiple bitter taste receptors have reignited a long-standing controversy over whether single gustatory receptor cells respond selectively or broadly to tastants. We examined calcium responses of rat taste receptor cells in situ to a panel of bitter compounds to determine whether individual cells distinguish between bitter stimuli. Most bitter-responsive taste cells were activated by only one out of five compounds tested. In taste cells that responded to multiple stimuli, there were no significant associations between any two stimuli. Bitter sensation does not appear to occur through the activation of a homogeneous population of broadly tuned bitter-sensitive taste cells. Instead, different bitter stimuli may activate different subpopulations of bitter-sensitive taste cells.

1 Department of Physiology and Biophysics,
2 Program in Neuroscience, University of Miami School of Medicine, 1600 NW 10th Avenue, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
3 Laboratorio de Biofísica, Centro Internacional de Física, AA 49480, Bogotá, Colombia.
4 Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center, Denver, CO 90262, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: acaicedo{at}chroma.med.miami.edu

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