The morphology of the tongue of the adult barking deer, Muntiacus muntjak, was examined by light and scanning electron microscopy. The result showed that the tongue of the barking deer was elongated with a rounded apex. Four types of lingual papillae were observed: filiform, fungiform, vallate and large conical papillae. The filiform papillae represented the most numerous types of lingual papillae. The fungiform papillae were distributed among the filiform papillae on the rostral and the body portions of the tongue. Ten to thirteen vallate papillae were distributed on both sides of the lingual prominence among the large conical papillae. Histologically, both the fungiform and vallate papillae contain taste buds in the epithelial layer. The distribution and types of lingual papillae found in the barking deer are similar to those in the other species that belong to the family Cervidae.
Neoculin is a sweet protein capable to alter the sour taste into sweet taste, it is 500 times sweeter than the ordinary sugar. This protein has been discovered in Malaysia under the name of Curculin. There are a number of experimental studies that have been conducted on neoculin but none of the studies focuses on molecular level, in order to understand how the protein interacts with the human sweet taste receptors T1R2 and T1R3. Therefore, in this work, a protein-protein docking study was performed between neoculin and the human sweet taste receptor T1R2 and T1R3. The docking results showed residues that might be important for binding the neoculin with the human sweet taste receptors, particularly T1R3 at the amino terminal domain (ATD). In addition, the current results showed that His11, which is important for the taste modifying ability does not bind directly to the human sweet taste receptors.
A method to fabricate a bioinspired nanobiosensor using electronic-based artificial taste receptors for glucose diagnosis is presented. Fabricated bioinspired glucose nanobiosensor designated based on an artificial taste bud including an amperometric glucose biosensor and taste bud-inspired circuits. In fact, the design of the taste bud-inspired circuits was inspired by the signal-processing mechanism of taste nerves which involves two layers. The first, known as a type II cell, detects the glucose by glucose oxidase and transduces the current signal obtained for the pulse pattern is conducted to the second layer, called type III cell, to induce synchronisation of the neural spiking activity. The oscillation results of fabricated bioinspired glucose nanobiosensor confirmed an increase in the frequency of the output pulse as a function of the glucose concentration. At high glucose concentrations, the bioinspired glucose nanobiosensor showed a pulse train of alternating short and long interpulse intervals. A computational analysis performed to validate the hypothesis, which was successfully reproduced the alternating behaviour of bioinspired glucose our nanobiosensor by increasing the output frequency and alternation of pulse intervals according to the reduction in the resistivity of the biosensor.
Synsepalum dulcificum or the "miracle fruit" is well known for its taste-modifying ability. The aim of this review was to assess the published medically beneficial as well as potential characteristics of this fruit. A search in three databases, including PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar, was made with appropriate keywords. The resulting articles were screened in different stages based on the title, abstract, and content. A total of nine articles were included in this review. This review summarized the findings of previously published studies on the effects of miracle fruit. The main studied characteristic of the fruit was its effect on the taste receptors, resulting in the sweet sensation when substances with acidic content were ingested. This effect was shown to be related to a glycoprotein called "miraculin." Other beneficial characteristics of this fruit were its antioxidant and anticancer abilities that are due to the various amides existing in the miracle fruit. Apart from the above, the other observed effect of this fruit was its antidiabetic effect that was tested in rats. Further studies should be conducted to establish the findings. The miracle fruit can be a healthy additive due to its unique characteristics, including sour taste sensation modification as well as its antioxidant and antidiabetic effects.