Sweetness chemoreception theory and sweetness transduction

This review summarizes the outcome of sweet taste chemoreception research over the last 30 years. Since the sweet taste receptor has yet to be isolated and identified, several models have been developed to account for sweetness and to explain how molecules are structured to elicit sweet taste chemoreception. The models proposed are classified as follows: category I: the receptor binding theories AH-B, AH-B-X; AH-B-gamma; the multi-attachment theory; the a-helix protein theory; category II: the direct G-protein binding theory. All currently established hypotheses are discussed and their ability to account for the sweetness of a variety of structurally dissimilar compounds critically evaluated. After 30 years, the AH-B theory still appears to be the best explanation for the ligand binding chemistry that induces sweet taste response, and it is also consistent with prevailing sweet taste transduction hypotheses. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.