Project description:The sense of taste starts with activation of receptor cells in taste buds by chemical stimuli which then communicate this signal via innervating oral sensory neurons to the CNS. The cell bodies of oral sensory neurons reside in the geniculate ganglion (GG) and nodose/petrosal/jugular ganglion. The geniculate ganglion contains two main neuronal populations, BRN3A+ somatosensory neurons that innervate the pinna, and PHOX2B+ sensory neurons that innervate the oral cavity. While much is known about the different taste bud cell subtypes, much less is known about the molecular identities of PHOX2B+ sensory subpopulations. In the GG as many as 12 different subpopulations have been predicted from electrophysiological studies, while transcriptional identities exist for only 3-6. Importantly, the cell fate pathways that diversify PHOX2B+ oral sensory neurons into these subpopulations are unknown. The transcription factor EGR4 was identified as being highly expressed in GG neurons. EGR4 deletion causes GG oral sensory neurons to lose their expression of PHOX2B and other oral sensory genes, and upregulate BRN3A. This is followed by a severe loss of chemosensory innervation of taste buds, a loss of Type II taste cells responsive to bitter, sweet, and umami stimuli, and a concomitant increase in Type I glial-like taste bud cells. These deficits culminate in a loss of nerve responses to sweet and umami taste qualities. Taken together, we identify a critical role of EGR4 in cell fate specification and maintenance of subpopulations of GG neurons, which in turn maintain the appropriate sweet and umami taste receptor cells.
Project description:Taste stem/progenitor cells from the mouse posterior tongue have been recently used to generate taste bud organoids. However, the inaccessible location of the taste receptor cells is observed in conventional organoids. Here, we established a suspension culture method for fine tuning of taste bud organoid by apicobasal polarity alteration to form the accessible localization of taste receptor cells in organoid. Compared to conventional Matrigel-embedded organoids, suspension-cultured organoids showed comparable differentiation and renewal rates to those of taste buds in vivo and exhibited functional taste receptor cells and cycling progenitor cells. Accessible taste receptor cells on the outer region of taste bud organoids enabled the direct application of calcium imaging for evaluating the taste response. Moreover, suspension-cultured organoids could be genetically altered using gene editing methods. Suspension-cultured taste bud organoid harmoniously integrated with the recipient lingual epithelium; maintained the taste receptor cells and gustatory innervation capacity. Thus, we propose that suspension-cultured organoids may provide efficient model for taste research including taste bud development, regeneration and transplantation
Project description:In Cichlids, replacement teeth (RT) share a continuous band of epithelium with adjacent taste buds (TB) and both organs co-express stem cell factors in subsets of label-retaining cells. In the mouse and other mammals, the tongue inter molar eminence (IE) oral papillae of Follistatin (Fat, BMP antagonist) mutants exhibited dysmorphic invagination. By using NGS-derived transcriptome profiling (RNAseq) analysis, we compared differential gene expression in the mouse tongue tissue in Follistatin (Fst) mutants mice with the wild type controls. Our results demonstrated ectopic expression of dental markers in tongue IE indicating that vertebrate oral epithelium retains inherent plasticity to form tooth and taste-like cell types mediated by BMP, therefore revealed under appreciated epithelial cell populations with promising potential in bioengineering and dental therapeutics.
Project description:To uncover novel molecules involved in taste detection, we performed a microarray-based screen for genes enriched in taste neurons. Proboscis RNA from flies homozygous for a recessive poxn null mutation was compared to RNA from heterozygous controls. Poxn mutants have a transformation of labellar gustatory chemosensory bristles into mechanosensory bristles and therefore lack most or all taste neurons. Experiment Overall Design: Proboscises of poxn70 homozygous mutant and poxn70 heterozygous mutant males (8-18 days post eclosure) were dissected, and total RNA was harvested in Trizol according to standard trizol protocol. Samples for each microarray were prepared from 164-280 proboscises. We performed 3 biological replicates for each genotype.
Project description:Tuft cells are an epithelial cell subset critical for initiating type 2 immune responses to parasites and protozoa in the small intestine. To respond to these stimuli, intestinal tuft cells use taste chemosensory signaling pathways, but the role of taste receptors in type 2 immunity is poorly understood. Here, we show that the taste receptor TAS1R3, which detects sweet and umami in the tongue, also regulates tuft cell responses in the distal small intestine. BALB/c mice, which have an inactive form of TAS1R3, as well as Tas1r3-deficient C57BL6/J mice both have severely impaired responses to tuft cell-inducing signals in the ileum including the protozoa Tritrichomonas muris and succinate. In contrast, TAS1R3 is not required to mount an immune response to the helminth Heligmosomoides polygyrus, which infects the proximal small intestine. Examination of uninfected Tas1r3-/- mice revealed a modest reduction in the number of tuft cells in the proximal small intestine but a severe decrease in the distal small intestine at homeostasis. Together, these results suggest that TAS1R3 influences intestinal immunity by shaping the epithelial cell landscape at steady state.
Project description:Taste substances are received by taste receptors expressed in taste cells. “Salty taste” sensation is evoked when sodium and chloride ions are present together in the oral cavity. The presence of an epithelial cation channel that receives Na+ has previously been reported. However, no molecular entity involving Cl- receptors has been elucidated. We report the strong expression of transmembrane channel-like 4 (TMC4) in the circumvallate and foliate papillae projected to the glossopharyngeal nerve, mediating a high-concentration of NaCl. Electrophysiological analysis using HEK293T cells revealed that TMC4 was a voltage-dependent Cl- channel and the consequent currents were completely inhibited by NPPB, an anion channel blocker. This channel could be activated without an increase in intracellular calcium ion. TMC4 allowed permeation of organic anions including gluconate, but their current amplitudes at positive potentials were less than that of Cl-. Tmc4-deficient mice showed significantly weaker glossopharyngeal nerve response to high-concentration of NaCl than the wild-type littermates. These results indicated that TMC4 is a novel chloride channel that responds to high-concentration of NaCl.
Project description:Previously we showed that taste receptor cells in situ in taste buds synthesize insulin. Here we describe a model of pig taste organoid culture in which we have promoted insulin expression by induction of quiescence. The cellular heterogeneity of the lingual epithelium is maintained in the organoids, and stem cell type and organoid architecture can be controlled through changes in media composition and/or use of static versus dynamic culture. Pig taste organoids were maintained long term and organoids cultured in low sheer stress dynamic exhibited an architecture and expression profile akin to the native tissue. Porcine taste organoids also contained insulin, and the insulin critical transcription factors MAFA and PAX4. These results provide a pig model of taste organoid culture that can be used universally and bring us closer to the use of the taste tissue as a new renewable source of beta cells