Running head: VARIATION OF PTC 1

Variation of PTC on Various Foods

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 Dissimilarity of PTC on Various Foods

The concept of PTC refers to a unique property with a bitter or tasteless taste experienced

as per genetic makeup of the individual who feels the given substance. Findings have suggested

that the bitter substance is a particular compound which has the specified chemical. The

composition of the PTC relates to bimodal, and it can easily be used to develop the pedigree of

individuals. Among the human population, there are those who have the capacity to tastes PTC

while other people cannot recognize it. It is a big challenge to tell why this kind of trait is

standard among the human population. Still, this kind of polymorphism plays an important duty

when it comes to identifying habits related to food selection, nutritional status as well as issues

related to thyroid metabolism. Researchers, however, have not established the particular gene

product which is responsible for this kind of behavior (Keller & Adise, 2016). Any discovery

towards this end will be important in ensuring that people gain more understanding regarding the

mechanism that looks into the issue of taste conception.

In building an understanding of the extent of natural diversity across the human

populations, the focus should be on putting more efforts on understanding PTC traditional

genetic market (Logan, 2014). Across the board, studies show that genetic studies to a large

extent relate in some particular ways despite the variations that if found among them. In this

case, the amount of variation of individual tastes that exist provides a clear path upon which

genetic techniques can be used to improve knowledge on the concept of taste (Cena, & Oggioni,

2016). For instance, many people appreciate the fact that taste can influence the kind of food that

a person takes (Choi et al., 2017). Evidently, the taste of food that people like relates reflected on

the dietary that they take. Some research suggests that there is a growing trend among many

individuals towards liking particular food especially sweetened ones such as doughnuts ad
yogurts among others. Based on such information that this essay focuses on highlighting the

effects of the sweetness of PTC tasting with the primary purpose of establishing whether honey

affects the sensitivity of PTC.

Methods

This experiment uses a total of 17 students (4 males and 13 females) and needs to get

conducted during the summer of 2017 at a temperature of 15-27 degrees. The data is collected

differently in a span of 2 days. Before starting trials, the students will be required to clean their

mouth.

For the first 15 minutes of the experiments, all 17 students go through a screening process

for PTC taster conditions. After this, the students follow instructions which will guide them as

they play food game using only honey. Some food will have little concentration of honey with

other will have a slightly higher level of Honey. In this sense, it will be possible to have rate PTC

taster status for all the students based on their food preferences within the laboratory. The ratings

get facilitated by the questionnaire responses that the students will submit. The importance of

using the questionnaire in this study is that it allows for easier estimation on the number of

servings consumed in a standard experiment on common foods with honey content variation. For

instance, it will show the amount of food material taken by students regarding the number of a

teaspoon of honey.

Secondly, the students will be directed to rinse their oral cavity according to the

instructions. In the second experiment, the main item used is relatively cold drinking water. The

students will be focused to consume a half cup of water then taste the diet containing honey and

their taste put on record on a scale of 1 to 3. The number one will represent less bitter; two will
indicate moderately bitter while three will show sharper on the scale. The experiment involves

three rounds with each time allowing the students to wash their cavity after every experiment.

References
Cena, H., & Oggioni, C. (2016). Tasters, Supertasters, Genes and Environment: How Dietary

Choices Influence Our Health. In Human Nutrition from the Gastroenterologists Perspective

(pp. 123-138). Springer International Publishing.

Choi, J. H., Lee, J., Oh, J. H., Chang, H. J., Sohn, D. K., Shin, A., & Kim, J. (2017). Variations in

the bitterness perception-related genes TAS2R38 and CA6 modify the risk for colorectal cancer

in Koreans. Oncotarget, 8(13), 21253.

Keller, K. L., & Adise, S. (2016). Variation in the Ability to Taste Bitter Thiourea Compounds:

Implications for Food Acceptance, Dietary Intake, and Obesity Risk in Children. Annual review

of nutrition, 36, 157-182.

Logan, D. W. (2014). Do you smell what I smell? Genetic variation in olfactory perception.

Biochemical Society Transactions, 42(4), 861-865.