Cat owners are well aware that their pets are always up for a little tuna, and now a recent study wondered where this love comes from, and it all has to do with the fifth taste, umami.
It is not easy to prepare a tuna salad or a tuna sandwich with mayonnaise near a cat, because once it smells fishy, it cannot be taken away from a human and it will certainly take a small sample for itself. Cats have a special sense of taste, because in addition to sweet, salty, sour and bitter, they can also perceive the fifth taste, umami, which is of great importance in the case of tuna.
the Cats have highly developed umami receptorsThese receptors are able to detect molecules present in tuna as a result of the strong contractions. To detect umami, two genes must be present: Tas1r1 and Tas1r3. Previous research had only detected the Tas1r3 gene in cats, but the current gene research It shows that they also have the gene Tas1r1, which puts them all the way to getting tuna.
The team conducted an experiment in which 25 cats were offered a bowl of water with different concentrations of amino acids and nucleotides and a bowl of plain water. The animals preferred bowls rich in umami and containing a higher concentration of the molecules.
