You Can Smell With Your Tongue Also – New Research

The identification of functional olfactory receptors in cells of human taste opens the door to new approaches to modify the flavor of food

Scientists at 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 the interactions between the senses of smell and taste, the main components of the flavor of food, may begin in the tongue and not in the brain, as previously thought.

"Our research can help explain how odor molecules modulate taste perception," said lead study author Mehmet Hakan Ozdener, MD, PhD, MPH, a cell biologist at Monell. "This can lead to the development of taste modifiers based on odor that can help fight excess salt, sugar and fat in the consumption of diet-related diseases, such as obesity and diabetes."

While many people equate taste with taste, the distinctive flavor of most foods and beverages comes from smell rather than taste. The taste, which detects sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami (tasty) molecules in the tongue, evolved as a guardian to evaluate the nutritional value and potential toxicity of what we put in our mouths. Smell provides detailed information on the quality of the flavor of the food, for example, that banana, licorice or cherry? The brain combines the contribution of taste, smell and other senses to create the multimodal taste sensation.

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 asked to challenge this belief when his 12-year-old son asked him if the snakes extended their tongues so they could smell.

In the study, published online before printing on Chemical Senses, Ozdener and his colleagues used methods developed at Monell to keep living cells of human taste in the culture. Using genetic and biochemical methods to test taste cell cultures, the researchers found that human taste cells contain many key molecules known to be present in olfactory receptors.

They then used a method known as calcium imaging to show that 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 in the tongue. Supporting this possibility, other experiments carried out by the Monell scientists showed that a single taste cell can contain both gustatory and olfactory receptors.

By: Preeti Narula

Content: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190424083405.htm