Publication Date:
2010-01-29
Description:
Salt taste in mammals can trigger two divergent behavioural responses. In general, concentrated saline solutions elicit robust behavioural aversion, whereas low concentrations of NaCl are typically attractive, particularly after sodium depletion. Notably, the attractive salt pathway is selectively responsive to sodium and inhibited by amiloride, whereas the aversive one functions as a non-selective detector for a wide range of salts. Because amiloride is a potent inhibitor of the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC), ENaC has been proposed to function as a component of the salt-taste-receptor system. Previously, we showed that four of the five basic taste qualities-sweet, sour, bitter and umami-are mediated by separate taste-receptor cells (TRCs) each tuned to a single taste modality, and wired to elicit stereotypical behavioural responses. Here we show that sodium sensing is also mediated by a dedicated population of TRCs. These taste cells express the epithelial sodium channel ENaC, and mediate behavioural attraction to NaCl. We genetically engineered mice lacking ENaCalpha in TRCs, and produced animals exhibiting a complete loss of salt attraction and sodium taste responses. Together, these studies substantiate independent cellular substrates for all five basic taste qualities, and validate the essential role of ENaC for sodium taste in mice.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2849629/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉 〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2849629/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Chandrashekar, Jayaram -- Kuhn, Christina -- Oka, Yuki -- Yarmolinsky, David A -- Hummler, Edith -- Ryba, Nicholas J P -- Zuker, Charles S -- R01 DC003160/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/ -- R01 DC003160-05/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/ -- Z01 DE000561-13/Intramural NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- England -- Nature. 2010 Mar 11;464(7286):297-301. doi: 10.1038/nature08783. Epub 2010 Jan 27.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Neurobiology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0649, USA〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20107438" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Behavior/physiology
;
Epithelial Sodium Channels/genetics/metabolism
;
Mice
;
Mice, Transgenic
;
Sodium/*physiology
;
Taste/*genetics
;
Taste Buds/cytology/metabolism/*physiology
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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