Taste and its receptors in human physiology: A comprehensive look

Increasing evidence shows that food has significance beyond traditional perception (providing nutrition and energy) in maintaining normal life activities. It is indicated that the sense of taste plays a crucial part in regulating human life activities. Taste is one of the basic physiological sensations in mammals, and it is the fundamental guarantee for them to perceive, select, and ingest nutrients in order to survive. With the advances in electrophysiology, molecular biology, and structural biology, studies on the intracellular and extracellular transduction mechanisms of taste have made great progress and gradually revealed the indispensable role of taste receptors in the regulation and maintenance of normal physiological activities. Up to now, how food regulates life activities through the taste pathway remains unclear. Thus, this review comprehensively and systematically summarizes the current study about the sense of taste, the function of taste receptors, the taste–structure relationship of gustatory molecules, the cross-talking between distinctive tastes, and the role of the gut–organ axis in the realization of taste. Moreover, we also provide forward-looking perspectives on taste research to afford a scientific basis for revealing the scientific connotation of taste receptors regulating body health.