A Population-Based Approach to Study the Impact of PROP Perception on Food Liking in Populations along the Silk Road

Antonietta Robino*, Massimo Mezzavilla, Nicola Pirastu, Maddalena Dognini, Beverly J. Tepper, Paolo Gasparini

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Taste is one of the main factors determining food choices. Differences in PROP bitter taste perception have been implicated in individual differences in food preferences and selection. The present study examined associations between, PROP phenotypes, self-reported food liking and TAS2R38 polymorphisms, the major gene implicated in PROP bitterness, in six different populations of the Caucasus and Central Asia, located along the ancient Silk Road. Differences in the distribution of PROP phenotypes across populations were detected, with a higher frequency of super tasters in Tajikistan (31.3%) and Armenia (39.0%) and a higher frequency of non tasters in Georgia (50.9%). While no relationships were observed between PROP phenotypes and food liking using standard statistical tests, we used an approach based on comparison of distance matrices derived from these data. The first matrix compared the food liking ratings of each population to all others pairwise using the Kruskal-Wallis test (at p

Original languageEnglish
Article number91716
Number of pages8
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume9
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Mar 2014

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • BITTER TASTE PERCEPTION
  • RECEPTOR GENE TAS2R38
  • INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES
  • 6-N-PROPYLTHIOURACIL PROP
  • PRESCHOOL-CHILDREN
  • SENSITIVITY
  • PHENYLTHIOCARBAMIDE
  • PTC
  • PREFERENCES
  • PHENOTYPE

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