A better sense of taste

The sense of taste informs our nutritive choices, which are essential for life and quality of life. Lack of basic information about taste organ development is a main impediment for understanding emergence of taste disorders that deregulate ingestion. To address the fundamental issues about origin and differentiation of taste papillae and taste buds, UGA animal and dairy scientists have been using transgenic mouse lines and tongue organ culture system for morphological and functional analysis. These studies contribute to understanding development of the taste organ and will bring new information and novel perspectives to the field for what constitutes taste cell precursors.