Mammals taste many compounds yet use a sensory palette consisting of only five basic taste modalities: sweet, bitter, sour, salty and umami (the taste of monosodium glutamate). Although this repertoire may seem modest, it provides animals with critical information about the nature and quality of food. Sour taste detection functions as an important sensory input to warn against the ingestion of acidic (for example, spoiled or unripe) food sources. We have used a combination of bioinformatics, genetic and functional studies to identify PKD2L1, a polycystic-kidney-disease-like ion channel, as a candidate mammalian sour taste sensor. In the tongue, PKD2L1 is expressed in a subset of taste receptor cells distinct from those responsible for sweet, bitter and umami taste. To examine the role of PKD2L1-expressing taste cells in vivo, we engineered mice with targeted genetic ablations of selected populations of taste receptor cells. Animals lacking PKD2L1-expressing cells are completely devoid of taste responses to sour stimuli. Notably, responses to all other tastants remained unaffected, proving that the segregation of taste qualities even extends to ionic stimuli. Our results now establish independent cellular substrates for four of the five basic taste modalities, and support a comprehensive labelled-line mode of taste coding at the periphery. Notably, PKD2L1 is also expressed in specific neurons surrounding the central canal of the spinal cord. Here we demonstrate that these PKD2L1-expressing neurons send projections to the central canal, and selectively trigger action potentials in response to decreases in extracellular pH. We propose that these cells correspond to the long-sought components of the cerebrospinal fluid chemosensory system. Taken together, our results suggest a common basis for acid sensing in disparate physiological settings.

Chronic opiate use induces opiate dependence, which is characterized by extremely unpleasant physical and emotional feelings after drug use is terminated. Both rewarding effects of drug and the desire to avoid withdrawal symptoms motivate continued drug use1-3, and the nucleus accumbens (NAc) is important for orchestrating both processes4,5. While multiple inputs to the NAc regulate reward6-9, little is known about the NAc circuitry underlying withdrawal. Here we identify the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) as a prominent input to the NAc mediating the expression of opiate withdrawal induced physical signs and aversive memory. Activity in the PVT to NAc pathway is necessary and sufficient to mediate behavioral aversion. Selectively silencing this pathway abolishes aversive symptoms in two different mouse models of opiate withdrawal. Chronic morphine exposure selectively potentiates excitatory transmission between the PVT and D2-receptor-expressing medium spiny neurons (D2-MSNs) via synaptic insertion of GluA2-lacking AMPA receptors. Notably, in vivo optogenetic depotentiation restores normal transmission at PVT→D2-MSNs synapses and robustly suppresses morphine withdrawal symptoms. These results link morphine-evoked pathway- and cell type-specific plasticity in the PVT→NAc circuit to opiate dependence, and suggest that reprogramming this circuit holds promise for treating opiate addiction.

The taste system is one of our fundamental senses, responsible for detecting and responding to sweet, bitter, umami, salty and sour stimuli. In the tongue, the five basic tastes are mediated by separate classes of taste receptor cells each finely tuned to a single taste quality. Here, we explored the logic of taste coding in the brain by examining how sweet, bitter, umami and saltiness are represented in the primary taste cortex. Using in vivo two-photon calcium-imaging we demonstrated striking topographic segregation in the functional architecture of the gustatory cortex. Each taste quality is represented in its own separate cortical field, revealing the existence of a gustotopic map in the brain. These results expose the basic logic for the central representation of taste.

The ability of the taste system to identify a tastant (what does it taste like?) enables animals to recognize and discriminate between the different basic taste qualities1,2. The valence of a tastant (is it appetitive or aversive?) specifies its hedonic value, and the execution of selective behaviors. Here we examine how sweet and bitter are afforded valence versus identity. We show that sweet and bitter cortex project to topographically distinct areas of the amygdala, with strong segregation of neural projections conveying appetitive versus aversive taste signals. By manipulating selective taste inputs to the amygdala, we show that it is possible to impose positive or negative valence to a neutral water stimulus, and even to reverse the hedonic value of a sweet or bitter tastant. Remarkably, animals with silenced amygdala no longer exhibit behavior that reflects the valence associated with direct stimulation of taste cortex, or with delivery of sweet and bitter chemicals. Nonetheless, these animals can still identify and discriminate between tastants, just as wildtype controls do. These results help explain how the taste system generates stereotypic and predetermined attractive and aversive taste behaviors, and substantiate distinct neural substrates for the discrimination of taste identity and the assignment of valence.