Whether or not animals can taste basic or alkaline food and how they do it has remained a mystery until now. A research group led by Yali Zhang, Ph.D., principal investigator at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, recently ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Mar 20, 2023
0
8
Taste matters to fruit flies, just as it does to humans: like people, the flies tend to seek out and consume sweet-tasting foods and reject foods that taste bitter. However, little is known about how sweet and bitter tastes ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 22, 2022
0
407
Sour taste does not have the nearly universal appeal that sweet taste does. Slightly sour foods or drinks such as yogurt and lemon juice are yummy to many, but such highly sour foods as spoiled milk are yucky, even dangerous. ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jun 18, 2021
0
16
The human blood meal is a favorite recipe for female mosquitoes. So drawn to its taste, they can't help but bite—and in the process they spread diseases that claim 500,000 lives each year.
Plants & Animals
Oct 13, 2020
0
202
Have you ever noticed how a bite of warm cherry pie fills your mouth with sweetness, but that same slice right out of the refrigerator isn't nearly as tempting? Scientists know this phenomenon to be true, but the mechanism ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 23, 2020
0
293
Some research suggests that one reason people with obesity overeat is because they don't enjoy food—especially sweets—as much as lean people.
Cell & Microbiology
May 7, 2019
0
132
Scientists have discovered bees linger on a flower, emptying it of nectar, because they have sugar-sensing taste neurons which work together to prolong the pleasure of the sweetness.
Plants & Animals
May 10, 2018
0
86
A team of neuroscientists from the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown (CCU), in Lisbon, Portugal, has discovered that specific taste neurons located in the fruit fly's proboscis confer a craving for protein. The results, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 5, 2018
0
76
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have found a way to access and manipulate taste neurons in the pharynx (throat) of the common fruit fly that could help control the spread of mosquito-related illnesses, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 5, 2017
0
60
The perception and reactions to odours and tastes can change in pregnancy, sometimes dramatically. This is also true for flies. The mechanisms, however, that trigger these changes are not understood in either mammals or insects. ...
Plants & Animals
May 5, 2016
2
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