JASON O'HALLORAN
Behavioral biologist Gary Beauchamp first observed that cats have no preference for sweets in the late 1970s. Three decades later, he and colleagues at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia figured out why—cats lack sweet taste receptors. Now, the same team reports that many more mammalian species have lost their sweet tooth: seven of 12 species they examined had mutated sweet taste receptors.
The results, published today (March 12) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that loss of taste receptor function in mammals is a widespread phenomenon that independently evolved multiple times, and may be related to carnivorous mammals’ feeding behavior.
“Genes for taste receptors exemplify the saying ‘use it or lose it,’” said Steven Roper, who studies taste reception ...
