Gene Loss

Publication Details

Identifier: JB_PFTOBR

Curator: Nádia Silva

Title:

Evolution of bitter taste receptors in humans and apes.

Abstract:

Bitter taste perception is crucial for the survival of organisms because it enables them to avoid the ingestion of potentially harmful substances. Bitter taste receptors are encoded by a gene family that in humans has been shown to contain 25 putatively functional genes and 8 pseudogenes and in mouse 33 putatively functional genes and 3 pseudogenes. Lineage-specific expansions of bitter taste receptors have taken place in both mouse and human, but very little is known about the evolution of these receptors in primates. We report the analysis of the almost complete repertoires of bitter taste receptor genes in human, great apes, and two Old World monkeys. As a group, these genes seem to be under little selective constraint compared with olfactory receptors and other genes in the studied species. However, in contrast to the olfactory receptor gene repertoire, where humans have a higher proportion of pseudogenes than apes, there is no evidence that the rate of loss of bitter taste receptor genes varies among humans and apes.

Last update:

07-05-2024

Associated Glosses (47 results)

GlossID	Species	Symbol	Gene Loss Mechanism	Loss Type	Lineage Specific	Citation
GL_VQYLNF	Papio hamadryas	TAS2R67P	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	No	10.1093/molbev/msi027
GL_VSRN7G	Macaca mulatta	TAS2R67P	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	No	10.1093/molbev/msi027
GL_VT5HF6	Pan troglodytes troglodytes	TAS2R6P	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	No	10.1093/molbev/msi027
GL_WOZMAA	Pan paniscus	TAS2R6P	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	No	10.1093/molbev/msi027
GL_XJUYCT	Pan troglodytes troglodytes	TAS2R12P	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	No	10.1093/molbev/msi027
GL_XRPOJQ	Homo sapiens	TAS2R6P	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	No	10.1093/molbev/msi027
GL_YKHGNY	Pongo pygmaeus	TAS2R39	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	No	10.1093/molbev/msi027