Summary: Functional olfactory receptors have been identified in human taste cells. The findings suggest olfactory receptors play a role in the taste system by interacting with taste receptors on the tongue. The brain, researchers say, combines input from taste, smell and other senses to create a multi-modal sensation of flavor.
Source: Monell Chemical Senses Center
Scientists from the Monell Center report that functional olfactory receptors, the sensors that detect odors in the nose, are also present in human taste cells found on the tongue. The findings suggest that interactions between the senses of smell and taste, the primary components of food flavor, may begin on the tongue and not in the brain, as previously thought.
“Our research may help explain how odor molecules modulate taste perception,” said study senior author Mehmet Hakan Ozdener, MD, PhD, MPH, a cell biologist at Monell. “This may lead to the development of odor-based taste modifiers that can help combat the excess salt, sugar, and fat intake associated with diet-related diseases such as obesity and diabetes.”
While many people equate flavor with taste, the distinctive flavor of most foods and drinks comes more from smell than it does from taste. Taste, which detects sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami (savory) molecules on the tongue, evolved as a gatekeeper to evaluate the nutrient value and potential toxicity of what we put in our mouths. Smell provides detailed information about the quality of food flavor, for example, is that banana, licorice, or cherry? The brain combines input from taste, smell, and other senses to create the multi-modal sensation of flavor.
Until now, taste and smell were considered to be independent sensory systems that did not interact until their respective information reached the brain. Ozdener was prompted to challenge this belief when his 12-year-old son asked him if snakes extend their tongues so they can smell.
In the study, published online ahead of print in Chemical Senses, Ozdener and colleagues used methods developed at Monell to maintain living human taste cells in culture. Using genetic and biochemical methods to probe the taste cell cultures, the researchers found that the human taste cells contain many key molecules known to be present in olfactory receptors.
They next used a method known as calcium imaging to show that the cultured taste cells respond to odor molecules in a manner similar to olfactory receptor cells.
Together, the findings provide the first demonstration of functional olfactory receptors in human taste cells, suggesting that olfactory receptors may play a role in the taste system by interacting with taste receptor cells on the tongue. Supporting this possibility, other experiments by the Monell scientists demonstrated that a single taste cell can contain both taste and olfactory receptors.
“The presence of olfactory receptors and taste receptors in the same cell will provide us with exciting opportunities to study interactions between odor and taste stimuli on the tongue,” said Ozdener.
In addition to providing insight into the nature and mechanisms of smell and taste interactions, the findings also may provide a tool to increase understanding of how the olfactory system detects odors. Scientists still do not know what molecules activate the vast majority of the 400 different types of functional human olfactory receptors. Because the cultured taste cells respond to odors, they potentially could be used as screening assays to help identify which molecules bind to specific human olfactory receptors.
Moving forward, the scientists will seek to determine whether olfactory receptors are preferentially located on a specific taste cell type, for example, sweet- or salt-detecting cells. Other studies will explore how odor molecules modify taste cell responses and, ultimately, human taste perception.
Also contributing to the research were lead author Bilal Makik, Nadia Elkaddi, and Jumanah Turkistani, all from Monell, and Andrew Spielman, from the New York University School of Medicine.
Funding: The research was funded by institutional funds from the Monell Center and grant P30DC011735 from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Source:
Monell Chemical Senses Center
Media Contacts:
Leslie Stein – Monell Chemical Senses Center
Image Source:
The image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Closed access.
“”Mammalian Taste Cells Express Functional Olfactory Receptors” Bilal Malik, Nadia Elkaddi, Jumanah Turkistani, Andrew I Spielman, Mehmet Hakan Ozdener. Chemical Senses. doi:10.1093/chemse/bjz019
Abstract
Mammalian Taste Cells Express Functional Olfactory Receptors
The peripheral taste and olfactory systems in mammals are separate and independent sensory systems. In the current model of chemosensation, gustatory, and olfactory receptors are genetically divergent families expressed in anatomically distinct locations that project to disparate downstream targets. Although information from the 2 sensory systems merges to form the perception of flavor, the first cross talk is thought to occur centrally, in the insular cortex. Recent studies have shown that gustatory and olfactory receptors are expressed throughout the body and serve as chemical sensors in multiple tissues. Olfactory receptor cDNA has been detected in the tongue, yet the presence of physiologically functional olfactory receptors in taste cells has not yet been demonstrated. Here we report that olfactory receptors are functionally expressed in taste papillae. We found expression of olfactory receptors in the taste papillae of green fluorescent protein-expressing transgenic mice and, using immunocytochemistry and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction experiments, the presence of olfactory signal transduction molecules and olfactory receptors in cultured human fungiform taste papilla (HBO) cells. Both HBO cells and mouse taste papilla cells responded to odorants. Knockdown of adenylyl cyclase mRNA by specific small inhibitory RNA and pharmacological block of adenylyl cyclase eliminated these responses, leading us to hypothesize that the gustatory system may receive olfactory information in the periphery. These results provide the first direct evidence of the presence of functional olfactory receptors in mammalian taste cells. Our results also demonstrate that the initial integration of gustatory and olfactory information may occur as early as the taste receptor cells.
