Candidate Taste Receptors in <i>Drosophila</i>

TLDR

The molecular mechanisms of taste perception, especially early signaling events, remain poorly understood in animals. Using a structure‑based computational screen, the authors identified a large, diverse family of seven‑transmembrane proteins in the Drosophila genome. Eighteen of nineteen candidate genes are expressed exclusively in the Drosophila labellum, absent in other tissues and in a taste‑neuron‑deficient mutant, indicating that this structurally diverse family likely encodes taste receptors.

Abstract

Little is known about the molecular mechanisms of taste perception in animals, particularly the initial events of taste signaling. A large and diverse family of seven transmembrane domain proteins was identified from the Drosophila genome database with a computer algorithm that identifies proteins on the basis of structure. Eighteen of 19 genes examined were expressed in the Drosophila labellum, a gustatory organ of the proboscis. Expression was not detected in a variety of other tissues. The genes were not expressed in the labellum of a Drosophila mutant, pox-neuro 70 , in which taste neurons are eliminated. Tissue specificity of expression of these genes, along with their structural similarity, supports the possibility that the family encodes a large and divergent family of taste receptors.