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Abstract

This invention relates to novel rationale and methods for identifying taste-specific genes, including genes involved in salty taste perception, especially human salty taste perception, but also genes involved in sweet, bitter, umami, and sour taste perception, and genes involved in other taste cell or taste receptor related activities such as digestive function and digestive related diseases, taste cell turnover, immunoregulation of the oral and digestive tract, and metabolic regulation such as in diabetes and obesity, the genes identified using these methods, and assays for identifying taste modulators (enhancers or blockers) and potential therapeutics using these genes. These compounds have potential application in modulating (enhancing or blocking) taste perception, especially salty taste perception and as potential therapeutics. In addition, this invention relates to novel methods for identifying taste-specific genes that can be used as markers for different taste cell types, including sweet, bitter, umami, sour, salt, and other taste cells in mammals as well as assays that measure the activity of the sweet, bitter, umami, or sour receptor in the presence of these genes to identify modulators of sweet, bitter, umami, and sour taste and to identify therapeutics especially for treating digestive or metabolic disorders, taste loss, and oral infections. Further, the invention provides specific methods of purifying, enriching, isolating or marking desired taste cell subtypes or lineages such as sweet, umami, bitter, salty, sour, fat or stem cells et al. e.g., by use of FACS, magnetic beads or other selection methods that purify, enrich, mark, or eliminate such as by use of labeled cytotoxins, cells that express or do not express one or more taste specific genes.

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First Claim