Mechanisms of Taste Transduction

Mechanisms of Taste Transduction introduces a number of topics essential to a complete understanding of taste. These topics range from the control of food intake to the biophysical mechanisms of transduction and the design of food flavors in the food industry. The responses and organization of special sensory pathways are described in regard to their development, morphology, composition, electrophysiological and biochemical responses. Details are presented at several levels to appeal to researchers in molecular biology, membrane biophysics, human psychophysics, neuroanatomy, and chemistry. Current research is described in the context of what preceding studies have revealed, and the chapter authors are among today's most active and highly respected researchers in the field of chemical senses.

Food Intake: The Role of Taste in Food Intake: A Comparative View (V.G. Dethier). Morphology of Taste Receptors: Morphology of Vertebrate Taste Organs and Their Nerve Supply (K. Reutter and M. Witt). The General Somatic Afferent Terminals in Oral Mucosae (B.L. Munger). Development of Peripheral Taste System: Control Mechanisms in Taste Bud Development (B. Oakley). The Developing Gustatory System: Function, Morphological, and Behavioral Perspectives (R.E. Stewart and D.L. Hill). Transduction Mechanisms: Peripheral Transduction Mechanisms (P. Avenet, S.C. Kinnamon, and S.D. Roper). The Molecular Biology of Chemotransduction (M. Akabas). Cell Biology of the Lingual Epithelium (J.A. DeSimone and G.L. Heck). Chemical Responses of Lingual Nerves and Lingual Epithelia (S.A. Simon and Y. Wang). Genetic and Neurobehavioral Approaches to the Taste Receptor Mechanism in Mammals (Y. Ninomiya and M. Funakoshi). Synaptic Interactions in Taste Buds (S.D. Roper). Sensory Coding by Peripheral Taste Fibers (D.V. Smith and M.E. Frank). Orosensory Processing in Neural Systems of the Nucleus of the Solitary Tract (S.P. Travers). Psychophysics: Insights into Transduction Mechanisms and Neural Coding (S.S. Schiffman and R.P. Erickson). Designing Tastants and Foods: Molecular Modeling Studies of Amiloride Analogues (C.A. Venanzi and T.J. Venazi). Design of Sweet and Bitter Tastants (D.E. Walters, G.E. DuBois, and M.S. Kellogg). Design of New Foods (H.I. Frier). Index.

Simon\, Sidney A.; Roper\, Stephen D.