TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding the role of bitter taste perception in coffee, tea and alcohol consumption through Mendelian randomization
AU - Ong, Jue Sheng
AU - Hwang, Daniel Liang Dar
AU - Zhong, Victor W.
AU - An, Jiyuan
AU - Gharahkhani, Puya
AU - Breslin, Paul A.S.
AU - Wright, Margaret J.
AU - Lawlor, Deborah A.
AU - Whitfield, John
AU - MacGregor, Stuart
AU - Martin, Nicholas G.
AU - Cornelis, Marilyn C.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Danielle Reed from the Monell Chemical Senses Center for providing critical feedback on the manuscript. This work is funded by National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders grant R03DC01337301A1 to MCC. This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource (application numbers 14829, 25331, 21394). D.A.L. works in a Unit that receives funding from the University of Bristol and UK Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12013/5); she is a UK National Institute of Health Research Senior Investigator (NF-SI-0611-10196). LDH is supported by an NHMRC project grant GNT1125200. V.W.Z. is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association Strategically Focused Research Networks (14SFRN20480260). SM acknowledges Australian NHMRC project grant APP1123248 and an ARC Future Fellowship. This work was also supported by the National Institute of Health [DC02995 to PASB], the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council [241944 and 1031119 to NGM], and the Australian Research Council [DP1093900 and DP0664638 to NGM and MJW].
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, The Author(s).
PY - 2018/12/1
Y1 - 2018/12/1
N2 - Consumption of coffee, tea and alcohol might be shaped by individual differences in bitter taste perception but inconsistent observational findings provide little insight regarding causality. We conducted Mendelian randomization analyses using genetic variants associated with the perception of bitter substances (rs1726866 for propylthiouracil [PROP], rs10772420 for quinine and rs2597979 for caffeine) to evaluate the intake of coffee, tea and alcohol among up to 438,870 UK Biobank participants. A standard deviation (SD) higher in genetically predicted bitterness of caffeine was associated with increased coffee intake (0.146 [95%CI: 0.103, 0.189] cups/day), whereas a SD higher in those of PROP and quinine was associated with decreased coffee intake (−0.021 [−0.031, −0.011] and −0.081 [−0.108, −0.054] cups/day respectively). Higher caffeine perception was also associated with increased risk of being a heavy (>4 cups/day) coffee drinker (OR 1.207 [1.126, 1.294]). Opposite pattern of associations was observed for tea possibly due to the inverse relationship between both beverages. Alcohol intake was only negatively associated with PROP perception (−0.141 [−1.88, −0.94] times/month per SD increase in PROP bitterness). Our results reveal that bitter perception is causally associated with intake of coffee, tea and alcohol, suggesting a role of bitter taste in the development of bitter beverage consumption.
AB - Consumption of coffee, tea and alcohol might be shaped by individual differences in bitter taste perception but inconsistent observational findings provide little insight regarding causality. We conducted Mendelian randomization analyses using genetic variants associated with the perception of bitter substances (rs1726866 for propylthiouracil [PROP], rs10772420 for quinine and rs2597979 for caffeine) to evaluate the intake of coffee, tea and alcohol among up to 438,870 UK Biobank participants. A standard deviation (SD) higher in genetically predicted bitterness of caffeine was associated with increased coffee intake (0.146 [95%CI: 0.103, 0.189] cups/day), whereas a SD higher in those of PROP and quinine was associated with decreased coffee intake (−0.021 [−0.031, −0.011] and −0.081 [−0.108, −0.054] cups/day respectively). Higher caffeine perception was also associated with increased risk of being a heavy (>4 cups/day) coffee drinker (OR 1.207 [1.126, 1.294]). Opposite pattern of associations was observed for tea possibly due to the inverse relationship between both beverages. Alcohol intake was only negatively associated with PROP perception (−0.141 [−1.88, −0.94] times/month per SD increase in PROP bitterness). Our results reveal that bitter perception is causally associated with intake of coffee, tea and alcohol, suggesting a role of bitter taste in the development of bitter beverage consumption.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41598-018-34713-z
DO - 10.1038/s41598-018-34713-z
M3 - Article
C2 - 30442986
AN - SCOPUS:85056665175
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 8
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
IS - 1
M1 - 16414
ER -