Twin study of the heritability of recognition thresholds for sour and salty taste - PubMed (original) (raw)

Twin study of the heritability of recognition thresholds for sour and salty taste

Paul M Wise et al. Chem Senses. 2007 Oct.

Abstract

Seventy-four pairs of monozygotic (identical) twins and 35 pairs of dizygotic (fraternal) twins provided recognition thresholds (modified Harris-Kalmus test) for the sourness of citric acid and the saltiness of sodium chloride during the Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, OH. Variance components (ACE) models were applied to the data: total variation = additive genetic (A) + common environment (C) + nonshared environment (E). The best-fit model of variation in recognition thresholds for sourness included an additive genetic factor, accounting for 53% of the variance, but no common environment component. This level of heritability, on par with that of sensitivity to the bitter compounds 6-n-propylthiouracil and phenylthiocarbamide, strongly suggests that genetic factors play a larger role than shared environment in determining individual differences in recognition thresholds for sourness. In contrast, the best-fit model for saltiness recognition included a common environment component, accounting for 22% of the variance in thresholds, but no additive component. This result suggests that environment plays a larger role than genetics in determining individual differences in recognition thresholds for saltiness.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Standardized path diagram depicting the additive genetic (A), common environmental (C), and unique environmental (E) variation in recognition thresholds for CA and NaCl. Standardized path coefficients (which should be squared to obtain proportion of variance accounted for) are shown, with 95% Cls in parentheses.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Ayya N, Beauchamp GK. Short-term effects of diet on salt taste preferences. Appetite. 1992;18:77–82. - PubMed
    1. Bachmanov AA, Reed DR, Tordoff MG, Price RA, Beauchamp GK. Intake of ethanol, sodium chloride, sucrose, citric acid, and quinine hydrochloride solutions by mice: a genetic analysis. Behav Genet. 1996;26:563–573. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Beauchamp GK, Bertino M, Engelman K. Sensory basis for human salt consumption. In: Horan MJ, Blaustein MP, Dunbar JB, Kachadorian W, Kaplan NM, Simopoulos AP, editors. NIH Workshop on Nutrition and Hypertension Proceedings from a Symposium; 1984 March 12–14; Bethesda, MD. New York. Biomedical Information Corporation; 1985.
    1. Beauchamp GK, Fisher AS. Strain differences in consumption of saline solutions by mice. Physiol Behav. 1993;54:179–184. - PubMed
    1. Blakeslee AF, Salmon TN. Genetics of sensory thresholds: individual taste reactions for different substances. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1935;21:84–90. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources