Silvia Balachia
Insights into Promiscuous and Selective Nature of Human Bitter Taste Receptors by Molecular Modelling.
Rel. Marco Agostino Deriu, Lorenzo Pallante, Marta Malavolta. Politecnico di Torino, Master of science program in Biomedical Engineering, 2020
Abstract
The mammalian sense of taste, a crucial natural mechanism for the evaluation of healthy food and recognition of toxic substances, is the result of a complex, multiscale signal transduction process. From the molecular/subcellular point of view, taste receptors are highly specialized proteins that allow the activation or deactivation of signalling pathways and the consequent perception of the five basic tastes: sweet, umami, bitter, salty and sour. Among them, the bitter taste is the one developed by nature to allow screening food molecules against poisons. A number of 25 different human bitter taste receptors (TS2R) has been identified till now. However, our knowledge of bitter taste mechanisms is limited by a lack of experimental data concerning the above-mentioned machinery structural features.
In this concern, computational molecular modelling represents a great opportunity to shed light on molecular mechanisms driving bitter taste transduction
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