Bitter taste gene may have been evolutionarily beneficial

It can be puzzling sometimes when someone else finds the taste of your favorite food to be disgusting, but research has shown we all perceive the taste of various compounds differently.

A new study from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania has found a genetic mutation making certain people more sensitive to the taste of a bitter compound could have been beneficial for certain human populations in Africa, resulting in the mutation being passed on from generation to generation.

Study researchers said their work, which was published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, represents the first time that this bitter-sensitivity gene known as TAS2R16 was studied in a large set of ethnically and culturally diverse African populations.

Read the full, original story here: Bitter Taste Gene May Have Been Beneficial To Human Evolution

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