ArticleCurrent biology : CB2015
Molecular evidence for the loss of three basic tastes in penguins.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 67 citations in OpenAlex.
- Retention of Sweet Taste in Sirenians Reflects Ecological Adaptation in Marine Mammals.Integrative zoology · 2026Article
- Evolution in metazoans of the TRPM channel family involves multiple gains and losses of genes and domains.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Functional Decline of a Bitter Receptor Gene in New World Vultures.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Taste receptors and their ecological niches: cats, dogs, and other vertebrates.Chemical senses · 2025Review
- Unexpected loss of TAS1R1-TAS1R3 umami taste receptor function in carnivorous Lyncodontini mustelids.Chemical senses · 2025Article
- The Remarkable Diversity of Vertebrate Bitter Taste Receptors: Recent Advances in Genomic and Functional Studies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Diversity and evolution of the vertebrate chemoreceptor gene repertoire.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Sensory collectives in natural systems.eLife · 2023Review
- Genomic signatures of convergent shifts to plunge-diving behavior in birds.Communications biology · 2023Article
- Bitter taste receptors along the gastrointestinal tract: comparison between humans and rodents.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Review
- Genomic novelty within a "great speciator" revealed by a high-quality reference genome of the collared kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris collaris).G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2022Article
- Copy number changes in co-expressed odorant receptor genes enable selection for sensory differences in drosophilid species.Nature ecology & evolution · 2022Article
- Genomic insights into the secondary aquatic transition of penguins.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Pharmacology of TAS1R2/TAS1R3 Receptors and Sweet Taste.Handbook of experimental pharmacology · 2022Article
- Role of feeding specialization in taste receptor loss: insights from sweet and umami receptor evolution in Carnivora.Chemical senses · 2022Article
- Evolutionary insights into umami, sweet, and bitter taste receptors in amphibians.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Current Progress in Understanding the Structure and Function of Sweet Taste Receptor.Journal of molecular neuroscience : MN · 2021Review
- Loss of sweet taste despite the conservation of sweet receptor genes in insectivorous bats.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Bitter taste receptors: Genes, evolution and health.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2021Review
- Expansion of sweet taste receptor genes in grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) coincided with vegetarian adaptation.BMC evolutionary biology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Sensing its biotic and abiotic environmental cues is critical to the survival and reproduction of any organism. Of the five traditionally recognized senses of vertebrates, taste is dedicated to the differentiation between nutritious and harmful foods, triggering either appetitive or rejective behaviors. Vertebrates typically can detect five basic taste qualities: sweet, umami, bitter, sour and salty. Remarkable progress in understanding the molecular basis of taste has opened the door to inferring taste abilities from genetic data. Based on genome and relevant gene sequences, we infer that the sweet, umami, and bitter tastes have been lost in all penguins, an order of aquatic flightless birds originating and still occupying the coldest ecological niche on Earth, the Antarctic.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.