Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
27506221
TITLE
Is the Association Between Sweet and Bitter Perception due to Genetic Variation?
ABSTRACT
NlmCategory: UNASSIGNED
Perceived intensities of sweetness and bitterness are correlated with one another and each is influenced by genetics. The extent to which these correlations share common genetic variation, however, remains unclear. In a mainly adolescent sample (n = 1901, mean age 16.2 years), including 243 monozygotic (MZ) and 452 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, we estimated the covariance among the perceived intensities of 4 bitter compounds (6-n-propylthiouracil [PROP], sucrose octa-acetate, quinine, caffeine) and 4 sweeteners (the weighted mean ratings of glucose, fructose, neohesperidine dihydrochalcone, aspartame) with multivariate genetic modeling. The sweetness factor was moderately correlated with sucrose octa-acetate, quinine, and caffeine (rp = 0.35-0.40). This was mainly due to a shared genetic factor (rg = 0.46-0.51) that accounted for 17-37% of the variance in the 3 bitter compounds' ratings and 8% of the variance in general sweetness ratings. In contrast, an association between sweetness and PROP only became evident after adjusting for the TAS2R38 diplotype (rp increased from 0.18 to 0.32) with the PROP genetic factor accounting for 6% of variance in sweetness. These genetic associations were not inflated by scale use bias, as the cross-trait correlations for both MZ and DZ twins were weak. There was also little evidence for mediation by cognition or behavioral factors. This suggests an overlap of genetic variance between perceptions of sweetness and bitterness from a variety of stimuli, which includes PROP when considering the TAS2R38 diplotype. The most likely sources of shared variation are within genes encoding post-receptor transduction mechanisms common to the various taste G protein-coupled receptors.
© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
DATE PUBLISHED
2016 Aug 9
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
entrez 2016/08/11 06:00
pubmed 2016/08/11 06:00
medline 2016/08/11 06:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Hwang LD Hwang Liang-Dar LD QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland 4006, Australia, School of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4006, Australia, daniel.hwang@qimrberghofer.edu.au.
Breslin PA Breslin Paul A S PA Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA, Department of Nutritional Sciences, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.
Reed DR Reed Danielle R DR Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Zhu G Zhu Gu G QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland 4006, Australia.
Martin NG Martin Nicholas G NG QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland 4006, Australia.
Wright MJ Wright Margaret J MJ Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia and Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME:
ISSUE:
TITLE: Chemical senses
ISOABBREVIATION: Chem. Senses
YEAR: 2016
MONTH: Aug
DAY: 9
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Internet
ISSN: 1464-3553
ISSNTYPE: Electronic
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Chem Senses
COUNTRY: England
ISSNLINKING: 0379-864X
NLMUNIQUEID: 8217190
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
JOURNAL ARTICLE
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
KEYWORD
IQ
TAS2R38
personality
sweetener
taste
twins
MESH HEADINGS
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's