Divergent taste responsiveness to fruit of the tree Antidesma bunius

Abstract

GENETIC divergence of taste responsiveness was first demonstrated for phenylthiocarbamide (PTC)¹, the inability to taste PTC bitter being described as an inherited Mendelian recessive character, and ability to taste PTC bitter as dominant². This hypothesis has largely been confirmed^3,4 although occasional incomplete penetrance of the ‘taster’ gene has been reported. Recently, eight people were served with a pie made from antidesma berries, and two people complained that the pie was extremely bitter and inedible. The other six people, however, found the pie pleasant tasting, enjoyably edible and sweet. This incident prompted us to survey taste responsivness to antidesma. We found that all subjects who tasted antidesma as bitter found PTC not bitter, whereas no subject who tasted PTC as bitter found antidesma bitter.