Taste reception of binary sugar mixtures: psychophysical comparison of two models.

Abstract

The taste reception of binary sugar mixtures may be described by (1) the single-site model, in which the sugars compete for reception at the same receptor sites, or (2) the separate-sites model, in which the sugars are transduced at independent receptor sites and then integrated in a common effector system. These models make different predictions about the sweetness of the mixture relative to the sweetness of its components. Two experiments, one using sucrose and fructose and the other using glucose and fructose, provide support for the separate-sites model, although its exact formulation has yet to be resolved. The separate-sites model can account for the phenomenon of supplemental action (synergism) sometimes observed in binary sugar mixtures.