Are Free Fatty Acids Effective Taste Stimuli in Humans?

Tucker, Robin M.; Mattes, Richard D.

doi:10.1111/j.1750-3841.2011.02518.x

Cited by 22 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Due to this multi-modal detection, establishing perception of dietary lipids and FAs as a distinct taste modality has been challenging [58], [59]. Previous studies have revealed that D. melanogaster can detect FAs, but did not discriminate between feedback from internal satiation sensors, gustatory, or olfactory signals [24], [52].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drosophila Fatty Acid Taste Signals through the PLC Pathway in Sugar-Sensing Neurons

2013

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Taste is the primary sensory system for detecting food quality and palatability. Drosophila detects five distinct taste modalities that include sweet, bitter, salt, water, and the taste of carbonation. Of these, sweet-sensing neurons appear to have utility for the detection of nutritionally rich food while bitter-sensing neurons signal toxicity and confer repulsion. Growing evidence in mammals suggests that taste for fatty acids (FAs) signals the presence of dietary lipids and promotes feeding. While flies appear to be attracted to fatty acids, the neural basis for fatty acid detection and attraction are unclear. Here, we demonstrate that a range of FAs are detected by the fly gustatory system and elicit a robust feeding response. Flies lacking olfactory organs respond robustly to FAs, confirming that FA attraction is mediated through the gustatory system. Furthermore, flies detect FAs independent of pH, suggesting the molecular basis for FA taste is not due to acidity. We show that low and medium concentrations of FAs serve as an appetitive signal and they are detected exclusively through the same subset of neurons that sense appetitive sweet substances, including most sugars. In mammals, taste perception of sweet and bitter substances is dependent on phospholipase C (PLC) signaling in specialized taste buds. We find that flies mutant for norpA, a Drosophila ortholog of PLC, fail to respond to FAs. Intriguingly, norpA mutants respond normally to other tastants, including sucrose and yeast. The defect of norpA mutants can be rescued by selectively restoring norpA expression in sweet-sensing neurons, corroborating that FAs signal through sweet-sensing neurons, and suggesting PLC signaling in the gustatory system is specifically involved in FA taste. Taken together, these findings reveal that PLC function in Drosophila sweet-sensing neurons is a conserved molecular signaling pathway that confers attraction to fatty acids.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drosophila Fatty Acid Taste Signals through the PLC Pathway in Sugar-Sensing Neurons

2013

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“…Taste receptors that are present on the tongue, do allow for the perception of taste and the importance of the oral cavity in the detection of highly palatable foods has led to a number of studies demonstrating the importance of sweet taste receptors and fatty acid receptors on the tongue. Lingual taste receptors modulate the preference for palatable foods and are regulated by the consumption of palatable foods [92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106]. Our laboratory has demonstrated that consumption of a high fat diet increases lingual and duodenal expression of the fatty acid receptor, CD36, in obesity-prone rats [102].…”

Section: Taste Perception and Food Preferences Following Bariatric Sumentioning

confidence: 97%

Recent advances in the modification of taste and food preferences following bariatric surgery

Primeaux

Silva

Tzeng

et al. 2016

Rev Endocr Metab Disord

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There is a large body of evidence indicating that bariatric surgery provides durable weight loss and health benefits to patients who are obese and have comorbidities such as type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, there are still many questions related to mechanisms of metabolic improvement, predictors of success/failure, and long term consequences, which need to be answered. More recently, there has been a particular interest in the modulation of taste and food preferences that occurs after bariatric surgery and how this affects weight loss in different individuals. Animal models as well as human studies have shed some light on the role of taste in changing food preferences and how these changes may affect weight loss after surgery. The goal of this review is to discuss the physiological and behavioral consequences of bariatric surgery as a treatment for obesity and T2D, with particular emphasis on recent studies describing bariatric surgery-induced modifications in taste perception and food preferences.

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“…29 However, this finding has raised some issues regarding the probability of a fat taste in humans, as there is no evidence supporting the secretion of the enzyme lingual lipase, which breaks down triglycerides into fatty acids, in human saliva. 30,31 However, it is important to note that several psychophysical reports indicate that humans can detect free fatty acids within the millimolar range, which corresponds to the concentrations naturally present in foods. 32 Moreover, several putative fatty acid taste transduction mechanisms including, among others, the fatty acid transporter CD36 and G proteincoupled receptor GPRC120 have recently been identified in the membrane of human lingual papillae.…”

Section: Homeostatic and Hedonic Control Of Food Intakementioning

confidence: 99%

Where is the comfort in comfort foods? Mechanisms linking fat signaling, reward, and emotion

Weltens

Zhao

Oudenhove

2014

Neurogastroenterology Motil

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This review paper aims to give an overview of current knowledge on the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the link between (fatty) foods, their reward value, and emotional responses to (anticipation of) their intake in humans. Firstly, the influence of exteroceptive sensory signals, including visual, olfactory ('anticipatory food reward'), and gustatory ('consummatory food reward'), on the encoding of reward value in the (ventral) striatum and of subjective pleasantness in the cingulate and orbitofrontal cortex will be discussed. Differences in these pathways and mechanisms between lean and obese subjects will be highlighted. Secondly, recent studies elucidating the mechanisms of purely interoceptive fatty acid-induced signaling from the gastrointestinal tract to the brain, including the role of gut peptides, will be presented. These studies have demonstrated that such subliminal interoceptive stimuli may impact on hedonic circuits in the brain, and thereby influence the subjective and neural responses to negative emotion induction. This suggests that the effect of foods on mood may even occur independently from their exteroceptive sensory properties.

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Are Free Fatty Acids Effective Taste Stimuli in Humans?

Cited by 22 publications

References 63 publications

Drosophila Fatty Acid Taste Signals through the PLC Pathway in Sugar-Sensing Neurons

Drosophila Fatty Acid Taste Signals through the PLC Pathway in Sugar-Sensing Neurons

Recent advances in the modification of taste and food preferences following bariatric surgery

Where is the comfort in comfort foods? Mechanisms linking fat signaling, reward, and emotion

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