Multiple loss-of-function variants of taste receptors in modern humans

Despite recent advances in the knowledge of interindividual taste differences, the underlying genetic backgrounds have remained to be fully elucidated. Much of the taste variation among different mammalian species can be explained by pseudogenization of taste receptors. Here I investigated whether the most recent disruptions of taste receptor genes segregate with their intact forms in modern humans by analyzing 14 ethnically diverse populations. The results revealed an unprecedented prevalence of 25 segregating loss-of-function (LoF) taste receptor variants, identifying one of the most pronounced cases of functional population diversity in the human genome. LoF variant frequency in taste receptors (2.10%) was considerably higher than the overall LoF frequency in human genome (0.16%). In particular, molecular evolutionary rates of candidate sour (14.7%) and bitter (1.8%) receptors were far higher in humans than those of sweet (0.02%), salty (0.05%) and umami (0.17%) receptors compared with other carnivorous mammals, although not all of the taste receptors were identified. Many LoF variants are population-specific, some of which arose even after population differentiation, not before divergence of the modern and archaic human. I conclude that modern humans might have been losing some sour and bitter receptor genes because of high-frequency LoF variants.