Taste cells are heavily exposed to the microbes in the mouth, but their role in helping the body respond to those microbes has not yet been studied in detail. A recent study from a team of researchers ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Some taste cells are multitaskers that can detect bitter, sweet, umami and sour stimuli, a new study finds. The research challenges conventional notions of how taste works. In the past ...

Taste buds are specialised sensory organs that facilitate the detection of chemical stimuli, ultimately guiding dietary preferences and enabling protective reflexes. Composed of distinct cell types – ...

A bitter taste in the mouth is often a symptom or side effect of illness, which may be the result of how the body reacts to pathogens. A new study sheds light on the mechanisms involved in the complex ...

Sweet-sensing taste cells, supported by the protein c-Kit, show remarkable resilience when nerves are damaged, unlike other taste cells that quickly degenerate. Blocking c-Kit with the drug imatinib ...

Have you ever wondered why only hummingbirds sip nectar from feeders? Unlike sparrows, finches and most other birds, hummingbirds can taste sweetness because they carry the genetic instructions ...

A) Taste tissue of wild-type mice and taste cell synaptic dysfunction mice (SNAP-cKO). In SNAP-cKO mice, the number of sour-sensing cells is reduced. B) Gustatory nerve responses to various taste ...

Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda first proposed umami as a basic taste—in addition to sweet, sour, salty and bitter—in the early 1900s. About eight decades later, the scientific community officially ...

Researchers from Okayama University of Science have identified bitter taste receptors in keratinocytes (skin cells). Previously thought to exist only on the tongue, these receptors detect and expel ...