Bitter taste receptor genes in pigs: SNP identification by using next-generation semiconductor sequencing

摘要

Diet selection in animals is directly affected by their taste perception. It is commonly accepted that the taste chemosensory system in mammals can detect five basic tastes: sweet, salt, sour, umami and bitter (Behrens and Meyerhof, 2009). In particular, bitter sensing evolved as a central warning signal to protect against ingesting potentially toxic bitter-tasting substances. It is sensed by a family of bitter taste receptors (referred as TAS2Rs) that in mammalian genomes are encoded by approximately 10-40 functional TAS2R genes (Bachmanov and Beauchamp, 2007). Variability in these genes could play an important role in feed preferences and feed intake in livestock species. Therefore, it could be also possible to apply information about animals with different variants giving different sensitivity to bitter tastants for diet formulation and feeding practises. Toward this aim, the first step is the identification of polymorphisms at the DNA level analysing livestock genomes.