Is the Association Between Sweet and Bitter Perception due to Genetic Variation?

ABSTRACT: Perceived intensities of sweetness and bitterness are correlated with one another and each is influenced by genetics. The extent to which these correlations share common genetic variation, however, remains unclear. In a mainly adolescent sample ( n = 1901, mean age 16.2 years), including 243 monozygotic (MZ) and 452 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, we estimated the covariance among the perceived intensities of 4 bitter compounds (6- n -propylthiouracil [PROP], sucrose octa-acetate, quinine, caffeine) and 4 sweeteners (the weighted mean ratings of glucose, fructose, neohesperidine dihydrochalcone, aspartame) with multivariate genetic modeling. The sweetness factor was moderately correlated with sucrose octa-acetate, quinine, and caffeine ( rp = 0.35-0.40). This was mainly due to a shared genetic

SUBMITTER: Hwang LD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5070489 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature