Bitter Taste Buds Comparison
Bitter vs Sour
Neftali Pena
CUL Keyboarding
Chef Brassard
Bitter and sour tastes are completely different with one another in description, receptor locations, studies on twins and siblings, and the various tongue taste diseases. Bitter is perceived to be unpleasant, sharp, or disagreeable. Sourness is detected by the concentration of hydronium ion in the hydrogen ion channels (diffen.com). Fruits such as oranges, grapes, lemons, etc. contain a sour taste, while bitter tasting foods are coffee, beer, and citrus peels. Bitter is detected by the taste buds at the back of the tongue and sour taste buds are located along the side of the tongue. Being able to detect bitter substances at low concentrations …show more content…
is considered to be a protective function (diffen.com).
Food molecules stimulate these taste buds, which, in turn, send messages to the brain. The bitter taste buds are the most sensitive. Taste buds contain many receptor cells. These cells only live 1 to 2 weeks and then are replaced by new receptor cells. Each of these receptors in a taste bud responds best to one of the basic tastes (library.thinkquest.org). Studies on twins, siblings, parents and their children show the differences in the taste qualities, genetically. Twins are particularly useful for heritable estimates in taste research because of the degree of taste similarity that are genetically identical (monozygotic; MZ) and for twin pairs that are no more alike than siblings (dizygotic; DZ) (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Taste disorders such as ageusia, hypogeusia, dysgeusia of phabtogeusia, parageusia, hypergeusia, and xerostomia all cause the food or drink to not taste properly and everything tastes the same or has a strange dirty …show more content…
taste. These diseases could cause the perception of bitter and sour foods to stray from the actual taste.
The perception of bitter tastes is a combination of a taste receptor and a G protein. The ability to detect bitterness at low concentration is considered to be a protective function and is used by health researchers. Bitter tasting foods are considerably toxic and food processing techniques are used to detoxify these foods. Sourness is detected by the concentration of hydronium ions in the hydrogen ion channels. Hydrogen ions are formed from water and acid. Sour taste is measured against the sourness bitterness threshold index of dilute hydrochloric acid which is 1 (diffen.com). Taste and smelling disorders are rare but possible. They occur in about 7% of the population. Some suffer from the distortion of taste, such as detecting a foul taste from a substance that is normally pleasant. A taste disorder is the inability to taste the food or drink properly. Dygeusia of Phantogeusia is called a phantom taste perception: the tasting of something, but the taste papillae are not stimulated by any food or drink. Taste disorders can be as severe as ageusia, which is the total loss of taste (library.thinkquest.org).
Bitter receptor genes were only just discovered.
Multiple bitter receptors are expressed in a taste receptor cell. Sweet and bitter transduction follow similar neural pathways. Studies for bitter compounds yield conflicting findings, particularly for quinine. Thresholds for the detection of quinine were measured and it was found that genetics holds high heritability both between parents and offspring and between groups of MZ and DZ twins. However, two other groups of investigators found no significant heritable component for thresholds of quinine. These discrepancies could have been partially influenced by differences in the way heritability was calculated between studies. Sensitivity to the bitter compounds appears to be moderately heritable
(ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).
Citations:
1. Reed, D., Tanaka, T., & McDaniel, A. (2006, June 30).Diverse tastes: Genetics of sweet and bitter perception. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1698869/
2. Bitter vs Sour. Retrieved from http://www.diffen.com/difference/Bitter_vs_Sour
3. Sonny. , Lotje, , Femke, , & Laurette, Sweet, Sour, Salt, and Bitter. Retrieved from http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00386/taste/fun/sweetandsour/sweetandsour.htm
Neftali Pena
CUL Keyboarding
Chef Brassard
Bitter and sour tastes are completely different with one another in description, receptor locations, studies on twins and siblings, and the various tongue taste diseases. Bitter is perceived to be unpleasant, sharp, or disagreeable. Sourness is detected by the concentration of hydronium ion in the hydrogen ion channels (diffen.com). Fruits such as oranges, grapes, lemons, etc. contain a sour taste, while bitter tasting foods are coffee, beer, and citrus peels. Bitter is detected by the taste buds at the back of the tongue and sour taste buds are located along the side of the tongue. Being able to detect bitter substances at low concentrations …show more content…
is considered to be a protective function (diffen.com).
Food molecules stimulate these taste buds, which, in turn, send messages to the brain. The bitter taste buds are the most sensitive. Taste buds contain many receptor cells. These cells only live 1 to 2 weeks and then are replaced by new receptor cells. Each of these receptors in a taste bud responds best to one of the basic tastes (library.thinkquest.org). Studies on twins, siblings, parents and their children show the differences in the taste qualities, genetically. Twins are particularly useful for heritable estimates in taste research because of the degree of taste similarity that are genetically identical (monozygotic; MZ) and for twin pairs that are no more alike than siblings (dizygotic; DZ) (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Taste disorders such as ageusia, hypogeusia, dysgeusia of phabtogeusia, parageusia, hypergeusia, and xerostomia all cause the food or drink to not taste properly and everything tastes the same or has a strange dirty …show more content…
taste. These diseases could cause the perception of bitter and sour foods to stray from the actual taste.
The perception of bitter tastes is a combination of a taste receptor and a G protein. The ability to detect bitterness at low concentration is considered to be a protective function and is used by health researchers. Bitter tasting foods are considerably toxic and food processing techniques are used to detoxify these foods. Sourness is detected by the concentration of hydronium ions in the hydrogen ion channels. Hydrogen ions are formed from water and acid. Sour taste is measured against the sourness bitterness threshold index of dilute hydrochloric acid which is 1 (diffen.com). Taste and smelling disorders are rare but possible. They occur in about 7% of the population. Some suffer from the distortion of taste, such as detecting a foul taste from a substance that is normally pleasant. A taste disorder is the inability to taste the food or drink properly. Dygeusia of Phantogeusia is called a phantom taste perception: the tasting of something, but the taste papillae are not stimulated by any food or drink. Taste disorders can be as severe as ageusia, which is the total loss of taste (library.thinkquest.org).
Bitter receptor genes were only just discovered.
Multiple bitter receptors are expressed in a taste receptor cell. Sweet and bitter transduction follow similar neural pathways. Studies for bitter compounds yield conflicting findings, particularly for quinine. Thresholds for the detection of quinine were measured and it was found that genetics holds high heritability both between parents and offspring and between groups of MZ and DZ twins. However, two other groups of investigators found no significant heritable component for thresholds of quinine. These discrepancies could have been partially influenced by differences in the way heritability was calculated between studies. Sensitivity to the bitter compounds appears to be moderately heritable
(ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).
Citations:
1. Reed, D., Tanaka, T., & McDaniel, A. (2006, June 30).Diverse tastes: Genetics of sweet and bitter perception. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1698869/
2. Bitter vs Sour. Retrieved from http://www.diffen.com/difference/Bitter_vs_Sour
3. Sonny. , Lotje, , Femke, , & Laurette, Sweet, Sour, Salt, and Bitter. Retrieved from http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00386/taste/fun/sweetandsour/sweetandsour.htm