Cells That Can Sense Four of Five Tastes Discovered In Mice

It is commonly thought that taste cells are very specific, only detecting one or two flavors. There are even taste cells that only respond to one compound, like taste cells that can only detect sweet sucralose or bitter caffeine. And so scientists were surprised to find supersensing cells in the taste buds of mice which can detect four of the five flavors that the buds recognize, namely, sweet, sour, umami, and bitter.

“The presence of these [newly discovered] cells completely disrupts how people think the taste bud works,” says Kathryn Medler, a neurophysiologist at the University at Buffalo in New York.

More details about the study, as well as its implications, over at ScienceNews.

(Image Credit: George Shuklin/ Wikimedia Commons)