Sweet-Tasting Protein Thaumatin: Physical and Chemical Properties

Abstract

Thaumatin is a sweet-tasting protein isolated from the fruits of Thaumatococcus daniellii Benth, a plant native to tropical West Africa. Thaumatin consists of a single-chain of 207 amino acid residues and elicits sweet taste at only a concentration of 50 nM, a value 100,000 times larger than that of sucrose on a molar basis. The intensely sweet taste of thaumatin has potential as a low-calorie sweetener as well as substitute for sucrose for industrial applications, and it may be useful tool in clarifying the mechanisms how we perceive of sweet taste. Nowadays, thaumatin has widely been used not only a natural sweetener but also as a substance for flavor enhancers as well as masking unpleasant taste in the food and pharmaceutical industries. This chapter describes recent progress as well as historical backgrounds on thaumatin: features of the protein, the recombinant production, the sweetness-determinants, the docking simulation with sweet taste receptors, and the atomic resolution structure with its applications.