Hwang Liang-Dar, Zhu Gu, Breslin Paul A S, Reed Danielle R, Martin Nicholas G, Wright Margaret J
Twin Res Hum Genet. 2015 Aug;18(4):361-7. doi: 10.1017/thg.2015.42.
The perception of sweetness varies among individuals but the sources of this variation are not fully understood. Here, in a sample of 1,901 adolescent and young adults (53.8% female; 243 MZ and 452 DZ twin pairs, 511 unpaired individuals; mean age 16.2±2.8, range 12–26 years), we studied the variation in the perception of sweetness intensity of two monosaccharides and two high-potency sweeteners: glucose, fructose, neohesperidine dihydrochalcone (NHDC), and aspartame. Perceived intensity for all sweeteners decreased with age (2–5% per year) and increased with the history of otitis media (6–9%). Males rated aspartame slightly stronger than females (7%). We found similar heritabilities for sugars (glucose: h2=0.31, fructose: h2=0.34) and high-potency sweeteners (NHDC: h2=0.31, aspartame: h2=0.30); all were in the modest range. Multivariate modeling showed that a common genetic factor accounted for >75% of the genetic variance in the four sweeteners, suggesting that individual differences in perceived sweet intensity, which are partly due to genetic factors, may be attributed to a single set of genes. This study provided evidence of the shared genetic pathways between the perception of sugars and high-potency sweeteners.
个体对甜味的感知存在差异，但其差异来源尚未完全明确。在此，我们对1901名青少年和青年成年人（女性占53.8%；243对同卵双胞胎和452对异卵双胞胎，511名单独个体；平均年龄16.2±2.8岁，年龄范围12 - 26岁）进行了研究，观察他们对两种单糖和两种强力甜味剂甜度感知的差异，这两种单糖为葡萄糖、果糖，两种强力甜味剂为新橙皮苷二氢查耳酮（NHDC）和阿斯巴甜。所有甜味剂的甜度感知随年龄增长而降低（每年降低2 - 5%），并随中耳炎病史增加而升高（升高6 - 9%）。男性对阿斯巴甜的甜度评价略高于女性（高7%）。我们发现糖类（葡萄糖：h2 = 0.31，果糖：h2 = 0.34）和强力甜味剂（NHDC：h2 = 0.31，阿斯巴甜：h2 = 0.30）具有相似的遗传度；均处于中等范围。多变量建模显示，一个共同的遗传因素占四种甜味剂遗传变异的75%以上，这表明甜度感知的个体差异部分归因于遗传因素，可能由一组单一基因所致。本研究为糖类和强力甜味剂甜度感知之间共享的遗传途径提供了证据。
