ABSTRACT
The study of human taste genetics is largely the study of bitter taste. Research on the genetics of human taste perception began in 1931 with the accidental finding that crystals of phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) tasted bitter to some people but were tasteless to others (Blakeslee, 1931; Fox, 1932). One in three people showed a heritable “taste blindness” to PTC (Blakeslee, 1931; Snyder, 1931) and to a related compound, 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP). Since that time, the phenotypic taste responses to PTC/PROP have been well described in the literature (Guo and Reed, 2001). However, the genes responsible for this trait have not been identified, and their exact location is still unknown (Reed, 2000).
