Taste Receptor Type 1 Member 3 (TAS1R3)

The TAS1R3 gene encodes the human homolog of mouse Sac, a major determinant of differences between sweet-sensitive and -insensitive mouse strains in their responsiveness to sucrose, saccharine, and other sweeteners.

The ability to taste the sweetness of carbohydrate-rich foodstuffs has a critical role in the nutritional status of humans. Although several components of bitter transduction pathways had been identified, the receptors and other sweet transduction elements remained unknown at the time of studies by Max et al. (2001). The Sac locus in mouse, mapped to the distal end of chromosome 4, is the major determinant of differences between sweet-sensitive and -insensitive strains of mice in their responsiveness to saccharine, sucrose, and other sweeteners .