TRP channels as targets for modulation of taste transduction

Abstract

The sense of taste endows organisms with the ability to distinguish nutritious from potentially harmful food components and to orchestrate adaptive attractive or aversive behaviors. Several members of the Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) family of cation channels have been implicated in the perception of canonical and non-canonical taste modalities, TRPM5 for sweet, bitter, umami and fat, TRPP3/PKD1L3 for sour and TRPV1 for salt and metallic tastes. However, TRPM5 is the only one for which there is consensus on its contribution to taste transduction. Here I review recent findings on the role of this channel in taste perception at the peripheral level. Emphasis is made on reported mechanisms of TRPM5 channel modulation that may have an impact on gustatory transduction. Understanding these mechanisms allows learning about basic taste signaling processes and their modulation (e.g. by temperature and taste-taste interactions), and is essential for the design of optimal therapeutic strategies targeting the gustatory system.