Categories: Taste / olfaction phene

Possible human homologue (MIM number): 606226 (gene)

Links to MONDO diseases: No links.

Cross-species summary: By sequencing very likely candidate genes (i.e. "genes involved in the initial transduction of sweet perception [which] might account for the indifference to sweet-tasting foods by cats"), Li et al. (2005) provided convincing evidence that one of the two genes required for the heteromer T1R2/T1R3 sweet-taste receptor, namely TAS1R2, is a non-functional pseudogene in all cats, tigers and cheetahs: in these species, the TAS1R2 gene has "a 247-base pair microdeletion in exon 3 and stop codons in exons 4 and 6" (Li et al., 2005). The authors argued that it seems likely that this same pseudogene may exist in all felidae.

Species in which this phene is found:
domestic cat (Felis catus)
tiger (Panthera tigris)
cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)