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Taste is a vital chemical sense for feeding behavior. In mammals, the umami and sweet taste receptors are composed of three members of the taste receptor type 1 (T1R/TAS1R) family: T1R1, T1R2, and T1R3. Because their functional homologs exist in teleosts, only threeTAS1Rgenes generated by gene duplication are believed to have been inherited from the common ancestor of bony vertebrates. Here, we report five previously uncharacterizedTAS1Rmembers in vertebrates, namedTAS1R4,5,6,7, andTAS1Rcf, through a genome-wide survey of diverse taxa. ForTAS1R2andTAS1R3, mammalian and teleost fish genes were found to be paralogous. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that the bony vertebrate ancestor had nineTAS1Rsdue to multiple gene duplications, and someTAS1Rswere lost independently in each lineage; ultimately, mammals and teleosts have retained only threeTAS1Rs, whereas other lineages have retained moreTAS1Rs. Functional assays and expression analysis in non-teleost fishes suggest that the novel T1Rs form heterodimers in taste receptor cells and contribute to the recognition of a broad range of ligands such as essential amino acids, including branched-chain amino acids, which were not previously considered as T1R ligands. These results highlight an unexpected diversity of taste sensations in both modern and the ancestors of vertebrates. The complex evolution of the taste receptor family might have enabled vertebrates to adapt to diverse habitats on Earth.

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