Loss of sweet taste despite the conservation of sweet receptor genes in insectivorous bats.

ABSTRACT: The evolution of taste perception is usually associated with the ecology and dietary changes of organisms. However, the association between feeding ecology and taste receptor evolution is unclear in some lineages of vertebrate animals. One example is the sweet taste receptor gene Tas1r2 Previous analysis of partial sequences has revealed that Tas1r2 has undergone equally strong purifying selection between insectivorous and frugivorous bats. To test whether the sweet taste function is also important in bats with contrasting diets, we examined the complete coding sequences of both sweet taste receptor genes (Tas1r2 and Tas1r3) in 34 representative bat species. Although these two genes are highly conserved between frugivorous and insectivorous bats at the sequence

SUBMITTER: Jiao H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7848599 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature