Frog Biology Could Provide Insights Into Human Response to Allergens
COS/BioE Professor Jing-Ke Weng published “Rapid Expansion and Specialization of the TAS2R Bitter Taste Receptor Family in Amphibians” in PLOS Genetics. His research explores how warnings frogs receive about potentially dangerous compounds in food they taste could help scientists understand how humans could detect similar signals, like allergens.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Cody Mello-Klein. Main photo: Learning more about the mechanism behind TAS2Rs and how frogs receive warnings about potentially dangerous compounds could provide invaluable lessons for humans, especially when it comes to allergies, says Jing-Ke Weng, a professor of chemistry, chemical biology, and bioengineering at Northeastern University. Photos by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
This researcher wants to know why frogs are so good at tasting bitter things—and what it could mean for humans
What if you could detect allergens even better, so that before you even put something in your mouth, you knew whether it was dangerous? And what if frogs could help you do it?
Those are the questions Jing-Ke Weng, a professor of chemistry, chemical biology and bioengineering at Northeastern University, tackled in a recent paper that sheds new light on frog biology—and what it could mean for humans.
Some frogs have 10 times the amount of bitterness receptors as humans, Professor Jing-Ke Weng revealed. His findings could help humans understand and alter how humans detect allergens. Photos by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
Weng and his team reveal that out of hundreds of animal species, amphibians, specifically frogs, have the highest number of bitter taste receptors, known as TAS2Rs. While humans have 25 TAS2Rs, mostly in the tongue but also in the gastrointestinal tract and even brain, a species like the wood frog has 248, nearly 10 times more, with some located in the liver and skin.
Weng says he hopes their findings—attributed in part to an evolutionary adaptation—could help scientists understand how humans detect similar signals, like allergens.
“It’s not only important for understanding how animals adapt to their chemical environment but also may have implications for understanding the chemical warning systems in humans,” Weng says. “We know that when you eat something extremely bitter, you want to either spit it out or poop it out if it’s in the intestine. We also want to understand whether that works hand in hand with the presence of certain toxic proteins to activate the immune system and whether this family of receptors may play a role in allergies.”
As a member of the Food Allergy Science Initiative, Weng was interested in understanding how animals, including humans, detect potentially dangerous signals from food. That goal led him and his team to bitterants, the molecules that work with allergen proteins to trigger warning signals in our bodies that are perceived by TAS2Rs.
Read full story at Northeastern Global News