Historical Background
Mammals are able to detect and interpret five main taste qualities: sweet, salty, sour, umami, and bitter, with a possible sixth modality (fat) having been recently identified (Liu et al. 2011). Like all sensory systems, those involved in the detection of taste are thought to have evolved as a tool to enhance survival in new environments and to increase fitness (Fig. 1).
The five taste modalities and their receptors. Umami, sweet, and bitter taste receptors are members of the GPCR family, while salt taste perception is mediated by epithelial sodium channels and sour taste perception is mediated by acidic compounds acting at the PKD2L1 receptor. The sixth proposed taste modality, fat, is pictured with the GPR120 receptor, which has been implicated in its function along with GPR40
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Martin, L.T.P., Dupré, D.J. (2018). Bitter Taste Receptors. In: Choi, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67199-4_101498
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