Shaping individuals’ eating behavior: do taste perception and oral microbiota have a role?

It is well known that sensory perception plays a role in driving food choices and shaping eating behavior and, especially taste perception, varies widely across individuals. These differences could be due to various factors, such as gender, age and genetic variation in taste receptors. Recently, researchers have suggested that microbiota could also have a potential direct role in shaping individuals\u2019 eating behavior. Indeed, a relationship between taste sensitivity and oral bacteria was suggested, associating reduced taste perception with specific oral bacteria\u2019s growth. However, fairly poor data are available and the relationship between taste perception, food preferences and oral microbiota has not been investigated so far. The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship among taste responsiveness, taste acuity and oral microbiota. The ability to taste the bitter compounds 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP), which is the most studied genetic source of individual variation in oral sensation, was used as general marker for taste responsiveness. Taste acuity was evaluated using 3-Alternative Forced Choice (3-AFC) for the four basic taste thresholds, whereas oral microbiota was collected through tongue sampling and a metagenomics DNA extraction and quantification were performed. Work is now in progress on the determination of bacterial community structures of the oral samples using the 16S rRNA gene profiling. 105 normal-weight young adults were tested in a screening procedure according to their PROP responsiveness. The least responsive subjects (Non-taster; n=30) and the most responsive subjects (Super-taster; n=29) were recruited for the main study (32 girls; age: 23.3+-2.6 years). Results showed that Super-tasters presented significant greater taste acuity for all the basic tastes compared to Non-tasters. Preliminary results showed no significant differences in oral bacterial abundances between two groups. The potentiality of this multidisciplinary approach could help to understand better and deepen the sensory-driven and microbiological factors related to eating behaviour