Abstract
To reveal the genetic variations for the difference in taste reception among human populations, we analyzed a human umami/sweet receptors, both belong to T1R family proteins. SNP data of T1R family were obtained from Hapmap databse for 11 human populations and analyzed. As a result, we found that only in African populations T1R1 (for umami) showed siginificantly positive values of Tajima's D, suggesting balancing selection. In addition, 88% of a non-synonymous SNP in potential umami-recognized region were observed in African populations. For T1R2 (sweet), the average nucleotide diversity was 1.8 times higher than T1R1, but there were no obvious differences in Tajima's D among populations. Therefore, we assume that the T1R1 has functional constraint stronger than T1R2 whereas the diversity has been maintained for of T1R1 at the same time in African populations, suggesting the importance of the variation in umami perception.