Variations in a gene on chromosome 7 seem to explain why people can differ in their sensitivity to bitter substances.
The capability to sense bitterness may have evolved because it keeps animals from eating harmful plants. “We have a sense of bitter taste to protect us from ingesting toxic substances,” says Dennis Drayna of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders in Bethesda, Md.
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.