Salt Preferences of Birds and Mammals

Duncan, Chris

doi:10.1086/physzool.35.2.30152721

Cited by 40 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…In contrast, salty taste is unique in that increasing salt concentration fundamentally transforms an innately appetitive stimulus into a powerfully aversive one 3–7 . This appetitive-aversive balance helps maintain appropriate salt consumption 3,4,6,8 , 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, ENaC 8 , while the cellular substrate for salt aversion was unknown.…”

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confidence: 99%

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High salt recruits aversive taste pathways

Oka

Butnaru

Buchholtz

et al. 2013

Nature

308

292

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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.

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“…On the other hand, high concentrations (>300 mM, referred as “high-salt”) are aversive, and provoke strong behavioral rejection. Notably, the attractive salt pathway is selectively responsive to sodium (underscoring the key requirement of NaCl in the diet), while the aversive one functions as a non-selective detector for a wide range of salts 3,4,6,7 .…”

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confidence: 99%

High salt recruits aversive taste pathways

Oka

Butnaru

Buchholtz

et al. 2013

Nature

308

292

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“…For rats, the number of taste buds on each tongue was around 1,000 (Miller 1977). With respect to NaCl taste and water, the intake preference threshold is between 0.017 and 0.043 M in pigeons (Duncan 1962), a value greater than rats' value, which is less than 0.009 M (Weiner and Stellar 1951). An operant discrimination study also showed that the NaClwater discrimination threshold obtained from a pigeon is relatively high, 0.034 M (Mariotti and Fiore 1980).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…Thus, we had seemingly underestimated pigeons' gustation. However, we are hesitant to conclude that pigeons are better than rats in chloride perception, from the behavioural and neurophysiological studies of pigeons' and rats' gustation (e.g., Duncan 1962;Mariotti and Fiore 1980;Miller 1977;Moore and Elliott 1946;Weiner and Stellar, 1951).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salt discrimination in domestic pigeons (Columba livia domestica): poisonous LiCl solution versus equimolar safe NaCl solution

Nakajima

Onimaru

2005

J Ethol

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Domestic pigeons (Columba livia domestica) learned to discriminate a safe 0.06 M NaCl solution provided by a caretaker (a good guy) and a poisonous equimolar LiCl solution given by another caretaker (a bad guy): the birds maintained drinking of the former, but came to suppress intake of the latter. When the NaCl solution was presented by the bad guy, the birds readily drank it as they did when the same solution was given by the good guy. Because the birds avoided the LiCl solution even in a short presentation period of 5 min, it is unlikely that the birds were using an interoceptive stimulus of a faint postingestional malaise sign as a conditioned cue of coming heavy illness to stop drinking. These results taken together suggest that our pigeons' discrimination performance between two chloride solutions was based on gustation. That is, they used the NaCl taste as a safe cue and the LiCl taste as a danger cue.

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“…For these reasons it seems plausible that 72 they can use the salinity of prey and surrounding water to adjust their salt intake and avoid osmotic 73 stress. Indeed, NaCl-sensitive taste buds found in chickens, pigeons and parrots react to 0.2 M and 74 higher concentrations of NaCl (Kitchell et al 1959;Duncan 1962;Matson et al 2000). A recent study 75 based on relevant gene sequences associated with taste buds showed that penguins (order 76 Sphenisciformes) have evolutionarily lost receptors for detecting sweet, umami, and bitter tastes, 77 but still possess those for detecting salty tastes (Zhao et al 2015); this would enable them to adjust 78 their salt intake.…”

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confidence: 99%