From the ACS Press Room A Bioelectronic Tongue ‘Tastes’ Sweetness “Ultrasensitive Bioelectronic Tongue Based on the Venus Flytrap Domain of a Human Sweet Taste Receptor”
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
ceptor. So, these researchers wanted to apply the same concept to make a sweet-sensing bioelectronic tongue, using the Venus flytrap domain as electronic taste buds.
Candy, cookies, juices. Just about everyone The researchers attached copies of the Venus likes sweet treats, but what one person thinks flytrap domain that were made by bacteria in a thin layer on tastes too sugary, another might think is just a gold elecright. This variability makes it challenging to trode. They develop new foods and beverages, so compathen connectnies have sought a more objective method. ed multiple Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied gold elecMaterials & Interfaces have developed an trodes together ultrasensitive bioelectronic tongue that with carbon measures sweetness by mimicking human nanotubes, taste buds. making a field Although human sensory panels are the most -effect transistor device. common way to analyze a substance’s taste, When soluthere can be a lot of differences in how peotions of natuple perceive flavors. To get more objective rally sweet sudata, researchers have made bioelectronic crose or of the tongues in the lab, but they either are compliartificial cated to manufacture or can’t fully replicate sweetener sacthe way the human tongue works. Human tongues have sweet taste receptors with two charin were applied to the device, the current large, complex structures that bind to com- decreased. The sensor responded to these sopounds such as sugars. The outermost portion lutions down to the 0.1 femtomolar level, of one of these structures is called the Venus which is 10 million times more sensitive than flytrap domain because its hinged, two-lobed previous bioelectronic sweet sensors, the remolecular structure resembles the leaves of searchers say. The device could also consistthe insectivorous plant that close around its ently measure the sweetness of real drinks, prey. This domain interacts with most of the such as apple juice and sucrose-sweetened chamomile tea, but it did not show a response sweet substances a person consumes. In a when cellobiose (a tasteless sugar) or monoprevious study, Tai Hyun Park, Seunghun sodium glutamate (a salt known as MSG) Hong and colleagues made an umami sensor were introduced. Because the bioelectronic with human-like performance by using just Continued on page 21 the protein at the end of the umami taste reFebruary 2022
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