3.11 - Bitter Taste

The recognition of potentially toxic bitter food constituents is important for the survival of species. The detection of hundreds of chemically diverse bitter substances is facilitated by bitter taste receptors present in the oral cavity of bony vertebrates. This chapter describes the progress research made during the last two decades after the discovery of bitter taste receptor genes is including the expression of bitter taste receptors, their agonist profiles, sensitivities, the diverse bitter taste receptor gene repertoires of vertebrate species, structure-function relationships as well as the existence of numerous receptor variants.