Molecular mechanism of the tree shrew's insensitivity to spiciness

PLoS Biology
Yalan HanRen Lai

Abstract

Spicy foods elicit a pungent or hot and painful sensation that repels almost all mammals. Here, we observe that the tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri chinensis), which possesses a close relationship with primates and can directly and actively consume spicy plants. Our genomic and functional analyses reveal that a single point mutation in the tree shrew's transient receptor potential vanilloid type-1 (TRPV1) ion channel (tsV1) lowers its sensitivity to capsaicinoids, which enables the unique feeding behavior of tree shrews with regards to pungent plants. We show that strong selection for this residue in tsV1 might be driven by Piper boehmeriaefolium, a spicy plant that geographically overlaps with the tree shrew and produces Cap2, a capsaicin analog, in abundance. We propose that the mutation in tsV1 is a part of evolutionary adaptation that enables the tree shrew to tolerate pungency, thus widening the range of its diet for better survival.

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Citations

Jun 18, 2019·British Journal of Pharmacology·Yue YinJie Zheng
May 18, 2020·Scientific Reports·Ying ChuHuai-Hu Chuang
Feb 6, 2019·Toxins·Canwei DuShilong Yang
May 16, 2019·Nature Communications·Lei LuoRen Lai
Aug 22, 2020·Science Advances·Shilong YangRen Lai
Aug 11, 2020·Laboratory Investigation; a Journal of Technical Methods and Pathology·Pulin CheQiang Ding
Jan 5, 2021·Frontiers in Physiology·Michael J M FischerArpad Szallasi
Nov 5, 2019·Biochimica Et Biophysica Acta. Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids·Marjann SchäferHartmut Kuhn
Jan 28, 2021·British Journal of Pharmacology·Yalan HanRen Lai
Apr 11, 2021·British Journal of Pharmacology·Fang ZhaoZhengyu Cao
Nov 18, 2021·Applied and Environmental Microbiology·Han LuoYu Zhou

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
environmental stress
NMR
transfection
light microscopy
PCR

Software Mentioned

PatchMaster
Polyphen
PAML
OrthMCL
Clustal Omega
Rosetta
Protein Analysis THrough Evolutionary Relationships ( PANTHER )
RosettaCM
Ensembl
MEGA

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