Joseph Brand

Member Emeritus

Education

Ph.D., Biophysics; University of Rochester

Research Summary

From the early 1970s until my 2010 retirement, my research was focused on using the techniques of biochemistry, biophysics, and molecular biology to explain chemosensory-directed behavior. While we did not anticipate complete concordance, nevertheless, I was surprised at how much agreement could be observed. Paramount among these was

• a correlation between saltiness and the degree of amiloride–sensitivity of the taste nerve to salty stimuli, and
• a concordance between the ability of mice to taste some bitter stimuli and the ability of these same stimuli to induce production of second messengers in the isolated membranes from taste tissue, all being performed in real time.

In the 21st century we shifted our focus to companion animals and to human, while still wishing to explain behavior at its molecular source. The well-known indifference of cats to sweet compounds was explicable in that the cat sweet taste receptor is a pseudogene. Other more recent projects of the laboratory included

• cloning and characterization of ion channels from human taste tissue that are involved in sour and salty taste;
• reconstitution of taste cell ion channels (for example human ENaC) in lipid bilayers;
• defining the roles of inflammatory signals in normal taste cell turnover and disease (with Dr. H. Wang)

Keywords

taste, biophysics, molecular biology, signal transduction, human taste cells, lipid bilayers, single taste cell pcr, taste receptor genetics

Recent Publications

Huque, T., Cowart, B. J., Dankulich-Nagrudny, L., Pribitkin, E. A., Bayley, D. L., Spielman, A. I. et al. (2009). Sour ageusia in two individuals implicates ion channels of the ASIC and PKD families in human sour taste perception at the anterior tongue. PLoS.One., 4, e7347.

Li, X., Glaser, D., Li, W., Johnson, W. E., O’Brien, S. J., Beauchamp, G. K. et al. (2009). Analyses of sweet receptor gene (Tas1r2) and preference for sweet stimuli in species of Carnivora. Journal of Heredity, 100, S90-S100.

Wang, H., Zhou, M., Brand, J., & Huang, L. (2007). Inflammation activates the interferon signaling pathways in taste bud cells. Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 10703-10713.

Huang, L., Cao, J., Wang, H., Vo, L. A., & Brand, J. G. (2006). Identification and functional characterization of a voltage-gated chloride channel and its novel splice variant in taste bud cells. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 280, 36150-36157.

Li, X., Li, W., Wang, H., Bayley, D. L., Cao, J., Reed, D. R. et al. (2006). Cats lack a sweet taste receptor. Journal of Nutrition, 136 (7Suppl), 1932S-1934S.

Ozdener, M. H., Yee, K. K., Cao, J., Brand, J. G., Teeter, J. H., & Rawson, N. E. (2006). Characterization and long term maintenance of rat taste cells in culture. Chemical Senses 31, 279-290. 2-1-2006.

Kaulin, Y. A., Takemoto, J. Y., Schagina, L. V., Ostroumova, O. S., Wangspa, R., Teeter, J. H. et al. (2005). Sphingolipids influence the sensitivity of lipid bilayers to fungicide, syringomycin E. Journal of Bioenergetics and Biomembranes, 37, 339-399.

Li, X., Li, W., Wang, H., Cao, J., Maehashi, M., Huang, L. et al. (2005). Pseudogenization of a sweet receptor gene accounts for cats’ indifference toward sugar. PLoS Genetics, 1, e3.