Abstract
Among several claims made concerning genetically determined taste differences in man (Snydeb and Davidson, 1937), only one, the PTC sensitivity, follows a simple Mendelian pattern and the present chapter will predominantly be concerned with this taste polymorphism. Discovered by Fox (1932) it provides the sense physiologist with two kinds of healthy people, both frequent in most populations, who throughout their lives maintain markedly different taste thresholds when challenged by a specific group of “bitter” chemicals. As this difference depends on a single autosomal allelic gene pair and is stationary the polymorphism has also been described as “taste-blindness,” in analogy to the stationary — though sex linked — hereditary defects of colour vision which are commonly described as colour-blindness.
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© 1971 Springer-Verlag, Berlin · Heidelberg
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Kalmus, H. (1971). Genetics of Taste. In: Beidler, L.M. (eds) Taste. Handbook of Sensory Physiology, vol 4 / 2. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65245-5_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65245-5_9
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