Humans and fruit flies respond to many of the same tastes—sweet, salty, bitter and so on. The receptors that identify these substances, however, are very different between us and insects. Except when it comes to sour.
Molecular & Computational biology
Dec 13, 2021
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206
It's no coincidence that the expression "to leave a bitter taste in one's mouth" has a double meaning; people often have strong negative reactions to bitter substances, which, though found in healthful foods like vegetables, ...
Evolution
Nov 11, 2013
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An international team of scientists led by the University of Michigan has discovered a new type of photoreceptor—only the third to be found in animals—that is about 50 times more efficient at capturing light than the ...
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 17, 2016
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30
Scientists from the Monell Center report that seven of 12 related mammalian species have lost the sense of sweet taste. As each of the sweet-blind species eats only meat, the findings demonstrate that a liking for sweets ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 12, 2012
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(Phys.org) —A pair of researchers in China has found vampire bats have difficulty tasting bitter flavors. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Wei Hong and Huabin Zhao of ...
The turtle has always been considered somewhat odd in evolutionary terms. In addition to lacking the hole in the skull—the temporal fenestra—that is characteristic of the egg-laying amniotes, the structure of its shell ...
Ecology
Jun 28, 2013
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Calcium may not come to mind when you think of tasty foods, but in a study appearing in the January 8 issue of JBC, Japanese researchers have provided the first demonstration that calcium channels on the tongue are the targets ...
Biochemistry
Jan 8, 2010
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A research team from the University of Cologne, in collaboration with colleagues from the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology in Freising, has discovered a receptor for bitter taste in twelve different cartilaginous ...
Evolution
Nov 13, 2023
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57
Anyone who's watched a cat throwing up after munching on grass knows that our feline friends aren't natural plant eaters. So you might be surprised to discover that these carnivorous animals share some important genes that ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 16, 2015
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99
Insects represent remarkable diversity and have adapted to all sorts of ecological nooks and crannies. For example, they have taste receptors—novel proteins—with which they taste chemicals and make important choices about ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 13, 2014
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