Taste Polymorphism in Mice involving a Bitter Sugar Derivative

Abstract

BECAUSE of the high correspondence between bitterness and the toxicity of naturally occurring bitter products¹, it is important for many free-ranging animals to be able to recognize and reject bitter tasting stimuli. The wild rat and mouse have also been subjected to synthetic rodenticides, many of which are bitter tasting². Selection pressures would therefore be expected to be directed toward maintaining sensitivity to bitter stimuli. By the same reasoning, sensitivity to bitter stimuli might well have been lost in some of the highly inbred strains of laboratory mice. Evidence of individual differences in responsiveness in non-homogeneous strains is suggestive of this trend³.