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l-Theanine elicits umami taste via the T1R1 + T1R3 umami taste receptor

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Abstract

l-Theanine is a unique amino acid present in green tea. It elicits umami taste and has a considerable effect on tea taste and quality. We investigated l-theanine activity on the T1R1 + T1R3 umami taste receptor. l-Theanine activated T1R1 + T1R3-expressing cells and showed a synergistic response with inosine 5′-monophosphate. The site-directed mutagenesis analysis revealed that l-theanine binds to l-amino acid binding site in the Venus flytrap domain of T1R1. This study shows that l-theanine elicits an umami taste via T1R1 + T1R3.

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Acknowledgments

The work was supported in part by the Funding Program for Next Generation World-Leading Researchers from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (LS037).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8657, Japan

    Masataka Narukawa, Yasuka Toda, Tomoya Nakagita & Takumi Misaka

  2. Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto, 611-0011, Japan

    Yukako Hayashi

Authors
  1. Masataka Narukawa
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  2. Yasuka Toda
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  3. Tomoya Nakagita
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  4. Yukako Hayashi
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  5. Takumi Misaka
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Takumi Misaka.

Additional information

M. Narukawa and Y. Toda contributed equally to this work.

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Narukawa, M., Toda, Y., Nakagita, T. et al. l-Theanine elicits umami taste via the T1R1 + T1R3 umami taste receptor. Amino Acids 46, 1583–1587 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-014-1713-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-014-1713-3

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