Genes from the TAS1R and TAS2R Families of Taste Receptors: Looking for Signatures of Their Adaptive Role in Human Evolution.

ABSTRACT: Taste perception is crucial in monitoring food intake and, hence, is thought to play a significant role in human evolution. To gain insights into possible adaptive signatures in genes encoding bitter, sweet, and umami taste receptors, we surveyed the available sequence variation data from the 1000 Genomes Project Phase 3 for TAS1R (TAS1R1-3) and TAS2R (TAS2R16 and TAS2R38) families. Our study demonstrated that genes from these two families have experienced contrasting evolutionary histories: While TAS1R1 and TAS1R3 showed worldwide evidence of positive selection, probably correlated with improved umami and sweet perception, the patterns of variation displayed by TAS2R16 and TAS2R38 were more consistent with scenarios of balancing selection that possibly conferred a heterozygous advantage a

SUBMITTER: Valente C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5905477 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature