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 John E. Hayes and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University
studied the genetic make-up of 93 adults, looking in particular for
so-called bitter-receptor genes, which are responsible for people’s
sensitivity to bitter tastes.
The researchers then asked participants to taste and rate alcohol
samples in a laboratory.
The findings suggest that two genetic variations influence
perceptions about the taste of alcohol and may shape how people
respond to their first sips of beer, wine or booze, according to the
study published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
“Some people might be more vulnerable because of how they experience
bitterness, and that’s because of differences in their genetics,”
Hayes told Reuters Health in a telephone interview. “If it’s more
bitter, you like it less, is the assumption.”
Hayes is a food science professor at Pennsylvania State in
University Park.
“The bitterness they perceived was influenced by which gene they
had, and it was exactly the same direction as we would have expected
from the previous work on alcohol intake,” he said.
Prior research, he said, shows that the more people taste
bitterness, the less likely they are to drink alcohol, and
vice-versa.
“The study suggests that people may or may not be predisposed toward
liking alcoholic beverages when they first try them. Just like
people can be color blind, it turns out some of us are more or less
taste blind,” Hayes said.
Humans have about 25 different bitter-taste receptor genes, he said.
He studied two: TAS2R13 and RAS2R38. Both of these have been linked
in previous studies to a tendency to drink when the gene is “turned
off” and not to drink when it is turned on, Hayes said.
The findings show that participants with one of the variants of the
bitterness gene rated the taste of alcohol as 25 percent more
intense, he said.
People with the bitterness variant of the RAS2R38 gene drank half as
often as those without it, Hayes said.
“Biology is not destiny, but it could play a role. Environment’s
hugely important too,” Hayes said.
“Some people might find it easier to drink, but they still might not
drink more because of religion, culture. There’s lots of factors
that can influence what we choose to eat,” he said.
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Hayes said he and his team have asked the National Institutes of
Health for a grant to follow 1,000 college students for their first
year at school, to see how genetic differences in taste perception
might influence their drinking habits.
If they find in the students what they found in the laboratory, it
could confirm that these genes might be good targets for
biologically tailored interventions to prevent and treat alcoholism,
Hayes said.
Researchers first identified a genetic basis for variability in the
perception of bitterness in 1932, Hayes noted in a previous report.
Natural selection to avoid eating bitter plant toxins may have
driven the genetic variation.
Nowadays, alcoholic beverages frequently are sweetened, reducing the
effect of the bitter-taste receptor, he and his colleagues point out
in their current paper.
Russell Keast, a professor of sensory and food sciences at Deakin
University in Australia, issued a statement with a press release
accompanying the article.
“The link between genetic variations in receptors and taste is an
area of growing importance," he said. Keast was not involved with
the current study.
"However, it does get more complex because alcoholic beverages
contain flavors and tastes that may mask any aversive effects of
bitterness – for example, the sweetness of a sherry, or the aromas
of a cocktail."
Hayes stressed that people can make their own choices despite their
genetics.
“Some individuals may learn to overcome their innate aversions to
bitterness and consume excessive amounts of alcohol,” he said,
“while others who do not experience heightened bitterness may still
choose not to consume alcohol for myriad reasons unrelated to
taste."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1t0ZxsR Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental
Research, online September 25, 2014.
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