Abstract
There has been extensive work to elucidate the behavioral and physiological mechanisms responsible for taste preferences of the rat but little attempt to delineate the underlying genetic architecture. Here, we exploit the FHH-Chr n(BN)/Mcwi consomic rat strain set to identify chromosomes carrying genes responsible for taste preferences. We screened the parental Fawn Hooded Hypertensive (FHH) and Brown Norway (BN) strains and 22 FHH-Chr n(BN) consomic strains, with 96-h 2-bottle tests, involving a choice between water and each of the following 16 solutions: 10 mM NaCl, 237 mM NaCl, 32 mM CaCl(2), 1 mM saccharin, 100 mM NH(4)Cl, 32 mM sucrose, 100 mM KCl, 4% ethanol, 1 mM HCl, 10 mM monosodium glutamate, 1 mM citric acid, 32 microM quinine hydrochloride, 1% corn oil, 32 microM denatonium, 1% Polycose, and 1 microM capsaicin. Depending on the taste solution involved, between 1 and 16 chromosomes were implicated in the response. Few of these chromosomes carried genes believed to mediate taste transduction in the mouse, and many chromosomes with no candidate taste genes were revealed. The genetic architecture of taste preferences is considerably more complex than has heretofore been acknowledged.