Genetics of Food Preferences: A First View from Silk Road Populations

Abstract

Food preferences are the main factor driving food intake and choice. There are good reasons to suspect some genetic influence on food acceptance, not least because genetic factors are implicated in a number of factors that are likely to be related to food choice. In addition, some food dislikes show themselves early in life, before there is any evidence for aversive experiences. Although taste has been widely studied in regards of pure tastes such as bitter or sweet perception, the relationship between taste-related genes and food preferences has seldom been explored. In this work we investigated relationship of 37 taste-related genes with food preferences. The study was carried out during a scientific expedition through Caucasus and Central Asia (Silk Road) analyzing more than 400 samples from 5 different countries. A food preference questionnaire was administered to each participant and a DNA sample was obtained. Other information, such as age, sex, life style and anthropometrical measures, were also collected. We found significant associations with variants of: (1) TAS1R2 [Correction added after initial online publication on 27 Aug 2012. TAS1R3 was changed to TAS1R2.] gene and liking of Vodka (P= 1.6 × 10(-3)), white wine (P= 4.0 × 10(-4)) and lamb meat (P= 1.6 × 10(-3)); (2) PCLB2 gene and preference for Hot Tea (P= 8.0 × 10(-4)); (3) TPRV1 gene and beet liking (P= 3.8 × 10(-5)); and (4) ITPR3 gene and liking of both lamb meat (5.8 × 10(-4)) and sheep cheese (8.9×10(-4)). These findings give a new insight on a better understanding, of genetic factors influencing food preferences which is critical to the development of effective dietary interventions, especially for people that may be genetically not predisposed for liking specific nutrients.

Dopamine gene methylation patterns are associated with obesity markers and carbohydrate intake

“…According to our results, it has been proposed that a mutation in Itpr3 gene could influences food choice by impairing the detection of nutrients in mice (Tordoff, Jaji, Marks, & Ellis, 2012). Likewise, a genetic variant in ITPR3 gene was related to the linking for particular foods in a Silk Road population (Pirastu et al., 2012). Meanwhile, ITPR2 and CACNA1C have been identified as candidate genes associated with addictive tendencies toward food (Pedram, Zhai, Gulliver, Zhang, & Sun, 2017).…”

Event-related potentials show taste and risk effects on food evaluation

“…Pirastu et al [3] stated that the sense of taste informs the body about food quality and is possibly among the most important determinants of food preference. The substantial number of taste referrals and claims about unhealthy food on packaged food labels and restaurant menus highlight the importance of understanding how consumers use risk perception from claims about unhealthy food along with taste preference to evaluate a product.…”

Variants in Chemosensory Genes Are Associated with Picky Eating Behavior in Preschool-Age Children

“…Genomic DNA was extracted from saliva samples using protocol for purification of DNA from 4.0 mL Oragene DNA/saliva. Nine SNPs from 6 candidate genes that had been previously implicated in chemosensory perception were selected for analysis: rs2234233 ( TAS2R1 ); rs10772420 ( TAS2R19 ); rs713598, rs1726866, and rs10246939 ( TAS2R38 ); rs2274327 and rs2274333 ( CA6 ); rs34160967 ( TAS1R1 ); and rs35874116 ( TAS1R2 ) [26,33,34,35]. SNPs were genotyped using Fluidigm® Genotyping Analysis version 4.1.2 (San Francisco, CA, USA).…”