ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2016
The K+ channel KIR2.1 functions in tandem with proton influx to mediate sour taste transduction.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 papers.
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72 citing papers in PubMed, 129 citations in OpenAlex.
- Functional Divergence and Emerging Roles of the ANO-TMC-TMEM63 Channel Families in Olfaction and Gustation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Carbon Dioxide Euthanasia Selectively Affects Physiology of Murine Retinal Cells, Implicating Carbonic Anhydrase-Expressing Cell Populations.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- Characterization of Next-Generation Inhibitors for the Inward-Rectifier Potassium Channel KACS medicinal chemistry letters · 2025Article
- Potassium-sensitive loss of muscle force in the setting of reduced inward rectifier KProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Epitope Tagging with Genome Editing in Mice Reveals That the Proton Channel OTOP1 Is Apically Localized and Not Restricted to Type III "Sour" Taste Receptor Cells.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Receptors and signaling for sour and salty: the ionic taste qualities.Chemical senses · 2025Review
- Potential role of glucagon like peptide 1 in taste receptors.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Review
- Research advances in mushroom umami: substance characteristics, multidimensional attributes, umami peptide screening, and umami assessment.Current research in food science · 2025Review
- Rare variants at KCNJ2 are associated with LDL-cholesterol levels in a cross-population study.NPJ genomic medicine · 2024Article
- Characteristics of A-type voltage-gated KCell and tissue research · 2024Article
- Longitudinal imaging of the taste bud in vivo with two-photon laser scanning microscopy.PloS one · 2024Article
- Article
- Diminishing neuronal acidification by channelrhodopsins with low proton conduction.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Article
- Effects of temperature on action potentials and ion conductances in type II taste-bud cells.American journal of physiology. Cell physiology · 2023Article
- The role of the oral microbiome in obesity and metabolic disease: potential systemic implications and effects on taste perception.Nutrition journal · 2023Review
- Physiology of the tongue with emphasis on taste transduction.Physiological reviews · 2023Review
- [Mechanisms and Management of COVID-19-Associated Taste Disorders].Sichuan da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Sichuan University. Medical science edition · 2023Review
- Defining the role of TRPM4 in broadly responsive taste receptor cells.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2023Article
- Recent Progress in the Study of Taste Characteristics and the Nutrition and Health Properties of Organic Acids in Foods.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
12 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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12 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
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Abstract
Sour taste is detected by a subset of taste cells on the tongue and palate epithelium that respond to acids with trains of action potentials. Entry of protons through a Zn(2+)-sensitive proton conductance that is specific to sour taste cells has been shown to be the initial event in sour taste transduction. Whether this conductance acts in concert with other channels sensitive to changes in intracellular pH, however, is not known. Here, we show that intracellular acidification generates excitatory responses in sour taste cells, which can be attributed to block of a resting K(+) current. We identify KIR2.1 as the acid-sensitive K(+) channel in sour taste cells using pharmacological and RNA expression profiling and confirm its contribution to sour taste with tissue-specific knockout of the Kcnj2 gene. Surprisingly, acid sensitivity is not conferred on sour taste cells by the specific expression of Kir2.1, but by the relatively small magnitude of the current, which makes the cells exquisitely sensitive to changes in intracellular pH. Consistent with a role of the K(+) current in amplifying the sensory response, entry of protons through the Zn(2+)-sensitive conductance produces a transient block of the KIR2.1 current. The identification in sour taste cells of an acid-sensitive K(+) channel suggests a mechanism for amplification of sour taste and may explain why weak acids that produce intracellular acidification, such as acetic acid, taste more sour than strong acids.
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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.