Article
Independent evolution of bitter-taste sensitivity in humans and chimpanzees.
Nature - 13 Apr 2006
Wooding Stephen, Bufe Bernd, Grassi Christina, Howard Michael T, Stone Anne C, Vazquez Maribel, Dunn Diane M, Meyerhof Wolfgang, Weiss Robert B, Bamshad Michael J
Abstract excerpt
It was reported over 65 years ago that chimpanzees, like humans, vary in taste sensitivity to the bitter compound phenylthiocarbamide (PTC). This was suggested to be the result of a shared balanced polymorphism, defining the first, and now classic, example of the effects of balancing selection in great apes. In humans, variable PTC sensitivity is largely controlled by the segregation of two common alleles at the...
Topics
- Alleles
- Animals
- Base Sequence
- Biological Evolution
- Genotype
- Gorilla gorilla
- Humans
- Pan troglodytes
- Phenotype
- Phenylthiourea
- Receptors, Cell Surface