In the tongue, distinct classes of taste receptor cells detect the five basic tastes, sweet, sour, bitter, sodium salt, and umami1,2. Among these qualities, bitter and sour stimuli are innately aversive, whereas sweet and umami are appetitive, and generally attractive to animals. In contrast, salty taste is unique in that increasing salt concentration fundamentally transforms an innately appetitive stimulus into a powerfully aversive one3–7. This appetitive-aversive balance helps maintain appropriate salt consumption3,4,6,8, and represents an important part of fluid and electrolyte homeostasis. We have previously shown that the appetitive responses to NaCl are mediated by taste receptor cells expressing the epithelial sodium channel, ENaC8, while the cellular substrate for salt aversion was unknown. Here we explore the cellular and molecular basis for the rejection of high concentrations of salts (>300 mM NaCl or KCl). We now show that high-salt recruits the two primary aversive taste pathways by activating the sour and bitter taste-sensing cells. We also demonstrate that genetic silencing of these pathways abolishes behavioral aversion to concentrated salt, without impairing salt attraction. Notably, mice devoid of salt-aversion pathways now exhibit unimpeded, continuous attraction even to exceedingly high concentrations of NaCl. We propose that the “co-opting” of sour and bitter neural pathways evolved as a means to ensure that high levels of salt reliably trigger robust behavioral rejection, thus preventing its potentially detrimental effects in health and well-being.

Summary Carbonated beverages are commonly available and immensely popular, but little is known about the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the perception of carbonation in the mouth. In mammals, carbonation elicits both somatosensory and chemosensory responses, including activation of taste neurons. We have now identified the cellular and molecular substrates for the taste of carbonation. By targeted genetic ablation and the silencing of synapses in defined populations of taste receptor cells, we demonstrate that the sour-sensing cells act as the taste sensors for carbonation, and show that carbonic anhydrase 4, a glycosyl-phosphatidyl inositol (GPI)-anchored enzyme, functions as the principal CO2 taste sensor. These studies reveal the basis of the taste of carbonation, and the contribution of taste cells in the orosensory response to CO2.

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G-protein-mediated signalling processes are involved in sweet and bitter taste transduction. In particular, the G protein alpha-subunit gustducin has been implicated in these processes. One of the limiting factors for the time-course of cellular responses induced by tastants is therefore the intrinsic GTPase activity of alpha-gustducin, which determines the lifetime of the active G protein complex. In several signalling systems specific 'regulator of G protein signalling' (RGS) proteins accelerate the GTPase activity of G protein alpha-subunits. Using differential screening approaches, we have identified a novel RGS protein termed RGS21, which represents the smallest known member of this protein family. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and in situ hybridization experiments demonstrated that RGS21 is expressed selectively in taste tissue where it is found in a subpopulation of sensory cells. Furthermore, it is coexpressed in individual taste cells with bitter and sweet transduction components including alpha-gustducin, phospholipase Cbeta2, T1R2/T1R3 sweet taste receptors and T2R bitter taste receptors. In vitro binding assays demonstrate that RGS21 binds alpha-gustducin in a conformation-dependent manner and has the potential to interact with the same Galpha subtypes as T1R receptors. These results suggest that RGS21 could play a regulatory role in bitter as well as sweet taste transduction processes.