Elusive Sour Taste Cells Identified

September 8, 2006

Humans can taste many different compounds, but they fall into five basic groups: sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and umami (the taste of monosodium glutamate).  The cells that detect sweet, bitter, and umami already have been identified.  Now, in the August 24 issue of the journal Nature, NIDCR scientists and colleagues have identified the long-sought mammalian taste cells that serve as our sour sensor.