Humans can easily identify sweet-tasting foods—and with pleasure. However, many carnivorous animals lack this ability, and whether birds, descendants of meat-eating dinosaurs, can taste sweet was previously unclear. An ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 9, 2021
0
1275
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
New collaborative research from Northwestern University and Lund University may have people heading to their backyard instead of the store at the outset of this year's mosquito season.
Plants & Animals
Mar 4, 2021
1
327
Coffee is very popular around the world despite or perhaps because of its bitter taste. Compounds contained in the coffee such as caffeine contribute to the bitterness to varying degrees. A recent study conducted by the Leibniz-Institute ...
Other
Jun 17, 2020
0
10
Evolution is a tinkerer, not an engineer. "Evolution does not produce novelties from scratch. It works with what already exists," wrote Nobel laureate François Jacob in 1977, and biologists continue to find this to be true.
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 3, 2020
0
329
Whether it's chocolate cake or pasta sauce, the sensation of sweetness plays a major role in the human diet and the perception of other flavors. While a lot is known about the individual proteins that signal "sweet," not ...
Biochemistry
Oct 23, 2019
0
11
A team of scientists headed by Maik Behrens from the Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich has identified the receptor responsible for the bitter taste of various salts. These include ...
Biochemistry
Apr 9, 2019
0
11
Fruit fly larvae can taste ribonucleosides, the building blocks of gene transcripts, according to a new study publishing on August 7 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Hubert Amrein and Dushyant Mishra of Texas A&M ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 7, 2018
0
64
From burgers to steaks, beef has a long history of being a delicious part of dinner. But what if that pleasant experience of eating beef could extend beyond the dinner plate? Now, one group reports in ACS' Journal of Agricultural ...
Biochemistry
May 16, 2018
0
5
Herbivorous insects are estimated to be responsible for destroying one-fifth of the world's total crop production annually, but a new, natural approach to pesticides that turns insects' taste and smell preferences against ...
Biotechnology
Oct 30, 2017
0
16
