Taste receptor type 2 member 46 is aprotein that in humans is encoded by theTAS2R46gene.[5][6]
Taste receptors for bitter substances (T2Rs/TAS2Rs) belong to the family ofG-protein coupled receptors and are related toclass A-like GPCRs. There are 25 known T2Rs in humans responsible for bitter taste perception.[7]
In 2022, the solved structure of Tas2r46[9] was published in the scientific journal Science[10] making it the first Tas2r with a solved structure. The structure of Tas2r46 was solved withcryo-EM and can be downloaded in theProtein Data Bank, under the following names:
7xp6- Cryo-EM structure of a class T GPCR in active state,7xp5- Cryo-EM structure of a class T GPCR in ligand-free state,7xp4- Cryo-EM structure of a class T GPCR in apo state.
There is also a prediction structure available inAlphafold, namedTaste receptor type 2 member 46 this is a computational prediction and not an experimental structure.
TAS2R46 was shown to be expressed in other tissues in the human body apart from the oral cavity including human bone marrow stromal-derived cells (MSC) and their relatives,vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC).[11]
^"Human PubMed Reference:".National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
^"Mouse PubMed Reference:".National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
^Bufe B, Hofmann T, Krautwurst D, Raguse JD, Meyerhof W (November 2002). "The human TAS2R16 receptor mediates bitter taste in response to beta-glucopyranosides".Nature Genetics.32 (3):397–401.doi:10.1038/ng1014.PMID12379855.S2CID20426192.
^abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaSandal M, Behrens M, Brockhoff A, Musiani F, Giorgetti A, Carloni P, Meyerhof W (September 2015). "Evidence for a Transient Additional Ligand Binding Site in the TAS2R46 Bitter Taste Receptor".Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation.11 (9):4439–4449.doi:10.1021/acs.jctc.5b00472.PMID26575934.
Conte C, Ebeling M, Marcuz A, Nef P, Andres-Barquin PJ (2003). "Identification and characterization of human taste receptor genes belonging to the TAS2R family".Cytogenetic and Genome Research.98 (1):45–53.doi:10.1159/000068546.PMID12584440.S2CID1542970.