Chemical Senses Vol. 29 No. 7 © Oxford University Press
2004; all rights reserved
Stimulus Processing of Glycine is Dissociable from that of Sucrose and Glucose Based on Behaviorally Measured Taste Signal Detection in Sac ‘Taster’ and ‘Non-taster’ Mice
Department of Psychology and the Center for Smell and Taste, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Correpondence to be sent to: Alan C. Spector, Department of Psychology, PO Box 112250, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-2250, USA. e-mail: spector{at}ufl.edu
Mouse strains have been divided into ‘tasters’ and
‘non-tasters’ based on their relatively high and low preference,
respectively, for low concentrations of sucrose and saccharin. These phenotypic
differences appear to be due to a polymorphism in the gene at the Sac locus
encoding for the T1R3 taste receptor selectively affecting the functionality of the
T1R2+3 heterodimer. To psychophysically examine whether these phenotypes are due to
sensory sensitivity as opposed to hedonic responsiveness, we measured taste signal
detection of sucrose, glucose, and glycine by Sac taster (C57BL/6J and SWR/J)
and non-taster (129P3/J and DBA/2J) strains in an operant conditioning paradigm using a
gustometer. The taster mice had lower detection thresholds for sucrose and glucose
compared with the non-taster mice. The detection thresholds corresponded well with
reported responsiveness to low concentrations of these sugars in two-bottle intake tests
suggesting that the Sac taster phenotype has a sensory basis and is not simply a
matter of strain differences in the hedonic evaluation of weak intensities of the
stimuli. Taster status did not entirely account for the strain differences in detection
thresholds for glycine, a ‘sweet’ tasting amino acid. Collapsed across
strains, detection thresholds for sucrose and glucose were highly correlated with each
other (r = 0.81), but only modestly correlated with those for glycine
(r 
0.43). This suggests that stimulus processing of glycine in the
perithreshold intensity domain can be dissociated from that of sucrose and glucose. The
mechanism underlying this difference may be related to the ability of glycine to bind
with the T1R1+3 heterodimer.
Key words: C57BL/6J, DBA/2J, 129P3/J, SWR/J, sweet taste, T1R receptors
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