| Definition | Protein involved in taste signal transduction. Human perceives five basic taste qualities: bitter, salty, sour, sweet, and umami, the taste of glutamate. Taste perception begins when a taste-eliciting molecule, or tastant, interacts with specialized receptors in the membrane of taste receptor cells. Taste responses to bitter, sweet, and umami compounds are initiated by G-protein-coupled receptors and transduced via G-protein signaling cascades. Salty and sour tastes are transduced by ion channels. |
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| Synonyms |
Gustation
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| Category |
› Biological process
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| GO | › sensory perception of taste [ GO:0050909 ]
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| Graphical | 
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