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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Mol. Neurosci.
Sec. Molecular Signalling and Pathways
Volume 17 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2024.1468438
This article is part of the Research Topic Communication Between Brain and Internal Organs via Nutrients View all articles

The complexities of salt taste reception: Insights into the role of TMC4 in chloride taste detection

Provisionally accepted
Yoichi Kasahara Yoichi Kasahara 1Masataka Narukawa Masataka Narukawa 2*Yoshikazu Saito Yoshikazu Saito 1Keiko Abe Keiko Abe 1Tomiko Asakura Tomiko Asakura 1*
  • 1 The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tōkyō, Japan
  • 2 Kyoto Women's University, Kyoto, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Although salt is an essential substance vital to life, excessive salt intake could cause various health issues. Therefore, new technologies and strategies should be developed to reduce salt intake without compromising taste. However, the underlying physiological mechanisms of salt taste reception is complex and not completely understood.Sodium chloride is a typical salty substance. It is widely believed that only sodium is important for the generation of salty taste. On the other hand, from a psychophysical perspective, the importance of chloride in salty taste has been indicated. Thus, understanding the mechanisms of both sodium-and chloride-tastes generation is necessary to completely comprehended the fundamentals of salt taste reception. However, the mechanism for detecting chloride taste has remained unclear for many years.Recently, we have identified transmembrane channel-like 4 (TMC4) as the first molecule that mediates the reception of chloride taste. TMC4 functions as a voltagedependent chloride channel and plays an important role in the reception of the chloride taste by detecting chloride ions. In this mini-review, we first introduce the known reception mechanism of salty taste, and then discuss the roles of TMC4 in the salt taste reception. The finding of TMC4 may serve as a basis for developing new technologies and formulating strategies to reduce salt intake without compromising taste.

    Keywords: salty taste, chloride channel, TMC4, chloride taste, Amiloride-insensitive

    Received: 22 Jul 2024; Accepted: 29 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kasahara, Narukawa, Saito, Abe and Asakura. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Masataka Narukawa, Kyoto Women's University, Kyoto, Japan
    Tomiko Asakura, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, 113-8654, Tōkyō, Japan

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