Canine taste nerve responses to monosodium glutamate and disodium guanylate: differentiation between umami and salt components with amiloride

Abstract

It has been argued whether the ‘umami substances’ such as monosodium glutamate (MSG) and disodium 5′-guanylate (GMP) stimulate the salt receptor or the unique receptor to the umami substances. We examined effects of amiloride, which inhibited the canine chorda tympani nerve responses to salts such as NaCl, KCl and NH 4Cl, in a competitive manner, on the nerve responses to the umami substances and differentiated between the umami and salt components. Amiloride shifted the dose-response curves for MSG to a higher concentration region, suggesting that amiloride inhibits the response to MSG in a competitive manner. The response to GMP alone and that induced by synergism between relatively low concentrations of MSG and GMP were not inhibited by amiloride. These results suggested that the response to MSG alone is the salt response and the response to GMP alone or that induced by the synergism is the umami response. The presence of MSG shifted the dose-response curves for GMP to a lower concentration region, suggesting that MSG increases the affinity of GMP to umami receptors. The present results favor the conclusion that GMP acts as an agonist and MSG acts as a modulator for the umami receptor in the dog. The synergism can be explained by an allosteric model where the umami receptor is assumed to have two binding sites, one for GMP and another for MSG.