Putative Mammalian Taste Receptors: A Class of Taste-Specific GPCRs with Distinct Topographic Selectivity

Taste represents a major form of sensory input in the animal kingdom. In mammals, taste perception begins with the recognition of tastant molecules by unknown membrane receptors localized on the apical surface of receptor cells of the tongue and palate epithelium. We report the cloning and characterization of two novel seven–transmembrane domain proteins expressed in topographically distinct subpopulations of taste receptor cells and taste buds. These proteins are specifically localized to the taste pore and are members of a new group of G protein–coupled receptors distantly related to putative mammalian pheromone receptors. We propose that these genes encode taste receptors.