Date of Award:

5-2014

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Biology

Committee Chair(s)

Timothy A. Gilbertson

Committee

Timothy A. Gilbertson

Committee

David A. York

Committee

MieJung Park-York

Committee

Michael Lefevre

Committee

Anhong Zhou

Abstract

As one of the most epidemic health concerns in the world, obesity has become a widespread health issue especially for the developed world. It is related to various health conditions including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer. It is also quite costly. In United States alone, the medical cost of obesity in 2008 was estimated to be $147 billion. Many underlying mechanisms of obesity have been studied in the past few decades. However, the most prevalent cause appears to be simply an imbalance of energy intake and expenditure, resulting in the accumulation of body fat. On one side of this imbalance, the increase in intake of dietary fat, the most energy dense nutrient, has been suggested to be a major player in the development of obesity. This relationshiphas illustrated the importance of understanding the mechanisms underlying the sensory perception of fat in food. The perception of fat has been considered to be conducted through somatosensory and olfactory system for many years. Since 1997, when Gilbertson et al. provided the first evidence that fatty acids activate taste cells by inhibiting delayed rectifying potassium channels, there has been accumulating evidence supporting the existence of a “taste of fat”. As part of the research on fat taste in Gilbertson lab in Utah State University, the study of this dissertation focused on the involvement of a taste cell expressing protein, cluster of differentiation 36 in fatty acid transduction, especially in taste system.

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