Identification of a Bitter-Taste Receptor Gene Repertoire in Different Lagomorphs Species.

Ana M Ferreira,Luca Fontanesi,Carl-Gustaf Thulin,Elvira Sales-Baptista,André M Almeida,Andreia T Marques,Susana S Araújo

doi:10.3389/fgene.2016.00055

Abstract

The repertoires of bitter-taste receptor (T2R) gene have been described for several animal species, but these data are still scarce for Lagomorphs. The aim of the present work is to identify potential repertoires of T2R in several Lagomorph species, covering a wide geographical distribution. We studied these genes in Lepus timidus, L. europaeus, Oryctolagus cuniculus algirus, Romerolagus diazi, and Sylvilagus floridanus, using O. cuniculus cuniculus as control species for PCR and DNA sequencing. We studied the identities of the DNA sequences and built the corresponding phylogenetic tree. Sequencing was successful for both subspecies of O. cuniculus for all T2R genes studied, for five genes in Lepus, and for three genes in R. diazi and S. floridanus. We describe for the first time the partial repertoires of T2R genes for Lagomorphs species, other than the common rabbit. Our phylogenetic analyses indicate that sequence proximity levels follow the established taxonomic classification.

Highlights

Bitter taste is associated with sensitivity to toxins and food choices in mammals
The repertoire of T2R genes has been described for several animal species, being nearly fully characterized for humans and mice (Behrens and Meyerhof, 2009, 2011), partially for sheep (Ferreira et al, 2013) and a variety of wild and domestic ruminants (Ferreira et al, 2015)
In this study we focus on the following species and subspecies: Domestic European rabbit (O. cuniculus cuniculus), Wild Iberian rabbit (O. cuniculus algirus), Brown hare (Lepus europaeus), Mountain hare (Lepus timidus), from Europe, the Volcano rabbit (Romerolagus diazi) from the Mexico, the Eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) and the American pika (O. princeps), both North American species

Summary

Introduction

Bitter taste is associated with sensitivity to toxins and food choices in mammals. At the molecular level, its signaling occurs via bitter G-protein-coupled taste receptors (T2R). In this study we focus on the following species and subspecies: Domestic European rabbit (O. cuniculus cuniculus), Wild Iberian rabbit (O. cuniculus algirus), Brown hare (Lepus europaeus), Mountain hare (Lepus timidus), from Europe, the Volcano rabbit (Romerolagus diazi) from the Mexico, the Eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) and the American pika (O. princeps), both North American species. These species have different feeding habits ranging from grasses, leaves, buds, tree bark, and roots for the rabbit species (Tislerics, 2000; Miller et al, 2014), grasses, herbs, and crops during summer and twigs, buds, shrub bark, small trees, and young fruit tree bark during winter for the hare species and the cottontail (Detweiler, 2000; Vu, 2001), leaves of grasses and some spiny herbs for the Volcano rabbit (Fa and Bell, 1990) and green plants like grasses, sedges, thistles, and fireweed for Pika

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