Cardiac gene expression data and in silico analysis provide novel insights into human and mouse taste receptor gene regulation

Abstract

G protein-coupled receptors are the principal mediators of the sweet, umami, bitter, and fat taste qualities in mammals. Intriguingly, the taste receptors are also expressed outside of the oral cavity, including in the gut, airways, brain, and heart, where they have additional functions and contribute to disease. However, there is little known about the mechanisms governing the transcriptional regulation of taste receptor genes. Following our recent delineation of taste receptors in the heart, we investigated the genomic loci encoding for taste receptors to gain insight into the regulatory mechanisms that drive their expression in the heart. Gene expression analyses of healthy and diseased h..