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Sweet taste of heavy water

Natalie Ben Abu, Philip E. Mason, Hadar Klein, Nitzan Dubovski, Yaron Ben Shoshan-Galeczki, Einav Malach, Veronika Pražienková, Lenka Maletínská, Carmelo Tempra, Victor Cruces Chamorro, Josef Cvačka, Maik Behrens, View ORCID ProfileMasha Y. Niv, Pavel Jungwirth
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.22.110205
Natalie Ben Abu
1The Institute of Biochemistry Food Science and Nutrition, The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, and The Fritz Haber Center for Molecular Dynamics, The Hebrew University, of Jerusalem, Israel
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Philip E. Mason
2Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Flemingovo nám. 2, 16610 Prague 6, Czech Republic
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Hadar Klein
1The Institute of Biochemistry Food Science and Nutrition, The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, and The Fritz Haber Center for Molecular Dynamics, The Hebrew University, of Jerusalem, Israel
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Nitzan Dubovski
1The Institute of Biochemistry Food Science and Nutrition, The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, and The Fritz Haber Center for Molecular Dynamics, The Hebrew University, of Jerusalem, Israel
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Yaron Ben Shoshan-Galeczki
1The Institute of Biochemistry Food Science and Nutrition, The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, and The Fritz Haber Center for Molecular Dynamics, The Hebrew University, of Jerusalem, Israel
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Einav Malach
1The Institute of Biochemistry Food Science and Nutrition, The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, and The Fritz Haber Center for Molecular Dynamics, The Hebrew University, of Jerusalem, Israel
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Veronika Pražienková
2Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Flemingovo nám. 2, 16610 Prague 6, Czech Republic
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Lenka Maletínská
2Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Flemingovo nám. 2, 16610 Prague 6, Czech Republic
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Carmelo Tempra
2Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Flemingovo nám. 2, 16610 Prague 6, Czech Republic
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Victor Cruces Chamorro
2Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Flemingovo nám. 2, 16610 Prague 6, Czech Republic
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Josef Cvačka
2Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Flemingovo nám. 2, 16610 Prague 6, Czech Republic
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Maik Behrens
3Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich, Lise-Meitner-Str. 34, 85354 Freising, Germany
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Masha Y. Niv
1The Institute of Biochemistry Food Science and Nutrition, The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, and The Fritz Haber Center for Molecular Dynamics, The Hebrew University, of Jerusalem, Israel
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  • ORCID record for Masha Y. Niv
  • For correspondence: masha.niv@mail.huji.ac.il pavel.jungwirth@uochb.cas.cz
Pavel Jungwirth
2Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Flemingovo nám. 2, 16610 Prague 6, Czech Republic
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  • For correspondence: masha.niv@mail.huji.ac.il pavel.jungwirth@uochb.cas.cz
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Abstract

Hydrogen to deuterium isotopic substitution has only a minor effect on physical and chemical properties of water and, as such, is not supposed to influence its neutral taste. Here we conclusively demonstrate that humans are, nevertheless, able to distinguish D2O from H2O by taste. Indeed, highly purified heavy water has a distinctly sweeter taste than same-purity normal water and adds to perceived sweetness of sweeteners. In contrast, mice do not prefer D2O over H2O, indicating that they are not likely to perceive heavy water as sweet. For humans, the sweet taste of D2O is suppressed by lactisole, which is a known sweetness inhibitor acting via the TAS1R3 monomer of the TAS1R2/TAS1R3 sweet taste receptor. HEK 293T cells transfected with the TAS1R2/TAS1R3 heterodimer and the chimeric Gα16gust44 G-protein are activated by D2O but not by H2O. The present study resolves a long-standing controversy about the taste of heavy water, confirms that its sweet taste is mediated by the human TAS1R2/TAS1R3 taste receptor, and opens way to future studies of potential sites and modes of action.

One sentence summary Heavy water elicits sweet taste for humans via the TAS1R2/TAS1R3 taste receptor.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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Posted May 22, 2020.
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Sweet taste of heavy water
Natalie Ben Abu, Philip E. Mason, Hadar Klein, Nitzan Dubovski, Yaron Ben Shoshan-Galeczki, Einav Malach, Veronika Pražienková, Lenka Maletínská, Carmelo Tempra, Victor Cruces Chamorro, Josef Cvačka, Maik Behrens, Masha Y. Niv, Pavel Jungwirth
bioRxiv 2020.05.22.110205; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.22.110205
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Sweet taste of heavy water
Natalie Ben Abu, Philip E. Mason, Hadar Klein, Nitzan Dubovski, Yaron Ben Shoshan-Galeczki, Einav Malach, Veronika Pražienková, Lenka Maletínská, Carmelo Tempra, Victor Cruces Chamorro, Josef Cvačka, Maik Behrens, Masha Y. Niv, Pavel Jungwirth
bioRxiv 2020.05.22.110205; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.22.110205

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