Research Sponsored by The Monell Center's scientists, working
with a multidisciplinary consortium of 19 researchers from nine
institutions, have identified CALHM1, a channel in the walls of
taste receptor cells, as a necessary component in the process of
sweet, bitter and umami (savory) taste perception. When sweet,
bitter and umami molecules reach the tongue, they activate taste
receptors in specialized cells called Type II taste cells. “The
question that the consortium wanted to answer is, ‘how do these
taste cells tell the brain that they have detected something?’
said Monell taste biologist Michael G. Tordoff. “This question
has been a longstanding missing link in our understanding of
taste perception.” According to scientific research institute
Monell, the scientists already knew that activation of taste
receptors on Type II cells initiates a complex chain of events
inside the taste cells. What they found, as reported in the
current issue of science and medical journal Nature, is that the
final step invo