MRC National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, London, UK.
J Pept Sci. 2012 Feb;18(2):73-82. doi: 10.1002/psc.1428. Epub 2011 Dec 7.
The taste of peptides is seldom one of the most relevant issues when one considers the many important biological functions of this class of molecules. However, peptides generally do have a taste, covering essentially the entire range of established taste modalities: sweet, bitter, umami, sour and salty. The last two modalities cannot be attributed to peptides as such because they are due to the presence of charged terminals and/or charged side chains, thus reflecting only the zwitterionic nature of these compounds and/or the nature of some side chains but not the electronic and/or conformational features of a specific peptide. The other three tastes, that is, sweet, umami and bitter, are represented by different families of peptides. This review describes the main peptides with a sweet, umami or bitter taste and their relationship with food acceptance or rejection. Particular emphasis will be given to the sweet taste modality, owing to the practical and scientific relevance of aspartame, the well-known sweetener, and to the theoretical importance of sweet proteins, the most potent peptide sweet molecules.
当考虑到这类分子的许多重要生物学功能时，肽的味道很少是最相关的问题之一。然而，肽通常确实有味道，涵盖了所有已建立的味道模式：甜、苦、鲜、酸和咸。后两种味道不能归因于肽本身，因为它们是由于存在带电末端和/或带电侧链，因此仅反映了这些化合物的两性离子性质和/或某些侧链的性质，而不是特定肽的电子和/或构象特征。另外三种味道，即甜、鲜和苦，由不同的肽家族代表。本综述描述了具有甜、鲜或苦味道的主要肽及其与食物接受或拒绝的关系。由于阿斯巴甜（一种著名的甜味剂）的实际和科学相关性以及甜味蛋白（最有效的肽甜味分子）的理论重要性，将特别强调甜味模式。
