Biomolecular techniques (bitter taste perception of Research Paper

Biomolecular techniques (bitter taste perception of phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) - Research Paper Example al, sensitivity to PTC seems to be inherited via Mendelian traits constituting two alleles: T for the taster and the nontaster- t; however in reality it is a complicated inheritance aspect. Today it is known that the sensitivity to PTC is mediated by a gene identified the TAS2R38 or PTC gene that encodes a receptor for bitter taste ( coupled receptor heteromeric G-protein) that is located on the tongue’s surface cells. The analysis focused on determining the presence or absence of the PTC gene amongst a group of 108 students. The results were compared to European and Sub-Saharan cohorts. It was found that he resulted closely matched to those of the European results (ABRF 96: Biomolecular Techniques. An International Symposium Sponsored by The Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities, 1996). There have been additional PTC gene studies in humans around the world which have shown that exist two main alleles, the taster and nontaster. However, five other uncommon alleles that have an effect on the taster phenotype have been revealed. These varying gene code forms for proteins differ in their being able to bind to PTC and other bitter compounds. The two main PTC gene alleles differ from each other by three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as shown in the figure 1. SNPs are representative of the simplest genetic variation type found in individuals. SNP in a genome refers to an exact location where diverse groups of people have differing nucleotides. If more than 1% percent of any given population possess different base thin a specific location, then that location is termed as an SNP. If a population has less than 1% possessing a different base, then it is termed as a mutation (Arimoto, 2005). The common allele for nontaster (also referred to as haplotype) has a position 145 G nucleotide (G145), position 785 T nucleotide (T785) and position 886 A nucleotide (A886). The nontaster allele generates polypeptides with isoleucine, valine and alanine at these